HOPV12 - Blogs

4 th Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaic Conference -Uppsala 2012 105
C6 - Donor-Acceptor Substituted Aza-BODIPYs for Molecular Bulk Heterojunction
Solar Cells: Synthesis and Optical Properties
Emad Al-Imarah a , Peter J. Derrick a , Shane G. Telfer a , Ashton Partridge b
a, MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University,
Palmerston North, New Zealand
b, Chemical and Materials Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
The use of small molecules for bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells is attractive comparing
with their polymer counterparts. Their advantages include well defined molecular structure
and molecular weight, as well as showing great prospect in large-scale and low-cost organic
solar cell commercialization applications.[1] Boron-chelated tetraarylazadipyrromethenes
(Aza-BODIPYs) are promising materials for photovoltaic applications because of their excellent
spectral properties such as high extinction coefficients in the visible region (70000-80000 M -1
cm -1 ) and large fluorescence quantum yields.[2]
Figure 1 Terthiophene substituted Aza-BODIPY dyes
New terthiophene substituted Aza-BODIPY dyes have been synthesized under standard
conditions. Their optical properties have been characterized by UV–VIS absorption and
fluorescence spectroscopies. These dyes showed an absorption in the NIR region with high
molar extinction coefficients. Terthiophene substituted Aza-BODIPY exhibit emission spectral
maxima at around 734 nm. Intermolecular charge transfer from 2 to PCBM has been confirmed
by a fluorescence quenching study. Future direction of this work will be synthesizing a range of
other donor-acceptor Aza-BODIPYs and implementing them in bulk heterojunction solar cells.
References
*1+ Haijun Fan, Huixia Shang, Yongfang Li, and Xiaowei Zhan.”Efficiency enhancement in small molecule bulk
heterojunction organic solar cells via additive”. Applied Physics Letters 97, 133302 (2010).
*2+ Tasior, M.; O'Shea, D. F. “BF2-Chelated Tetraarylazadipyrromethenes as NIR Fluorochromes” Bioconjugate
Chem. 21, 1130–1133 (2010).
© SEFIN 2012