Suitability of N-propanoic acid spiropyrans and spirooxazines for use as sensitizing dyes in dye-sensitized solar cells
By Johnson, Noah M.; Smolin, Yuriy Y.; Hagaman, Daniel; Soroush, Masoud; Lau, Kenneth K. S.; Ji, Hai-Feng
Published in Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.
2017
Abstract
This work deals with the fabrication and evaluation of color-changing dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) that include N-propanoic acid-functionalized spiropyrans and spirooxazines as sensitizing dyes. We investigated the photophysical properties of these compounds in various solvents and pH conditions using UV-Vis spectroscopy, and their behavior on TiO2 photoanode surfaces using a combination of UV-Vis and FT-IR. Their performance as sensitizing dyes for DSSCs was also analyzed. This study revealed a number of unique properties for this class of compounds that affect their performance as both photochromic compounds and DSSC sensitizers, which allow for future creation of efficient photochromic DSSCs.