Chinese University recommends a new way of anchoring dyes

China’s Dalian University of Technology has come up with a new way of anchoring dyes in organic solar cells.

The University says this opens up possibilities for the design and synthesis of a new generation of organic dyes with broad absorption spectra and high molar extinction coefficients.

The University highlighted that most dye-sensitised solar cells (DSCs) use cyanoacrylic acid coupled to the acceptor unit to anchor the dye to the semiconductor. However, this makes it difficult to modify the dye’s structure to improve the cell’s performance.

As per the information available, Xichuan Yang and colleagues, at Dalian University of Technology, China, changed the anchoring group to propanoic acid and attached it as a lateral chain to the donor unit. By separating the anchor from the acceptor, the team could easily modify the donor and acceptor units' structures to tune the dye's absorption spectra. Their new dyes were better at absorbing near infrared light than previously reported dyes of this type and so were more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity.

Yang mentioned that there is a need for further research via experimental studies of the behaviour of these dyes on the surface and the electron injection pathways.