Layered Zirconium phosphate intercalated with Ru(bpy)3-viologen dyads as unusual materials for dye-sensitized solar cells: Improving efficiency by double sensitization

The intercalation materials prepared from the laminar salt gamma-zirconium phosphate and various dyads formed from Ru(bpy)(3) and viologens were tested as photoactive components in dye-sensitised solar cells. The efficiencies significantly increased, up to 0.2 %, when the materials were treated with the panchromatic N535 dye. A mechanism for this double sensitisation process is proposed, which should enable further improvement of these gamma-ZrP-based materials as a reasonable alternative to the usual Ti-based dye-sensitised solar cells.The group from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) is grateful to ERCROS-Farmacia SA (Aranjuez, Spain) for sponsoring the UAM-ERCROS Chair in Chemistry that generously funded this work, in part. The group from Universidad del Pais Valenciano-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (UPV-CSIC) group is grateful to the Spanish former Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion de Espana (MICINN) for grant CTQ2012-32315. P.A. thanks the MICINN for a Juan de la Cierva research contract.De Victoria-Rodriguez, M.; Atienzar Corvillo, PE.; Juanes, O.; Rodriguez Ubis, JC.; Brunet, E.; García Gómez, H. (2014). Layered Zirconium phosphate intercalated with Ru(bpy)3-viologen dyads as unusual materials for dye-sensitized solar cells: Improving efficiency by double sensitization. Australian Journal of Chemistry. 67(3):389-397. https://doi.org/10.1071/CH1345138939767