A series of organic D-?-A dyes, endowed with different silicon-based anchoring groups, has been prepared to assess the stability of such anchoring moieties on nanocrystalline TiO2 in dye-sensitized solar cells. Due to the difficulties encountered in finding a reliable and robust preparation protocol to obtain pure trialkoxysilanes, replacement with a silatrane moiety was evaluated. It was found that the silatrane group could be easily introduced on three different molecular scaffolds by using a simple amide coupling reaction mediated by EDC-Cl. Furthermore, the spectroscopic properties and anchoring mode on nanocrystalline TiO2 of the silatrane dyes were found to be nearly identical to those of the trialkoxysilane compounds, and both gave a much more stable attachment to the semiconductor compared with their cyanoacrylic acid counterpart, as shown by desorption experiments.
Synthesis of Silatrane-Containing Organic Sensitizers as Precursors for the Silyloxyl Anchoring Group in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Massimo Calamante;Alessandro Mordini;Adalgisa Sinicropi;Mariangela Di Donato;Paolo Foggi;Alessandro Iagatti;Lorenzo Zani;Gianna Reginato
2017
Abstract
A series of organic D-?-A dyes, endowed with different silicon-based anchoring groups, has been prepared to assess the stability of such anchoring moieties on nanocrystalline TiO2 in dye-sensitized solar cells. Due to the difficulties encountered in finding a reliable and robust preparation protocol to obtain pure trialkoxysilanes, replacement with a silatrane moiety was evaluated. It was found that the silatrane group could be easily introduced on three different molecular scaffolds by using a simple amide coupling reaction mediated by EDC-Cl. Furthermore, the spectroscopic properties and anchoring mode on nanocrystalline TiO2 of the silatrane dyes were found to be nearly identical to those of the trialkoxysilane compounds, and both gave a much more stable attachment to the semiconductor compared with their cyanoacrylic acid counterpart, as shown by desorption experiments.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.