Issue 19, 2021

Indole fused heterocycles as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells: an overview

Abstract

The past three decades have witnessed extensive research in developing a range of non-metallic organic dyes for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Dyes occupy a prominent position among components in DSSCs, and organic dyes have emerged as the most promising candidate for DSSCs due to their performance, ease of synthesis, stability, tunability, low cost and eco-friendly characteristics. In addition to this, so far, the best and highest performing DSSCs reported in the literature use metal-free organic dyes. Organic dyes also provide flexibility to be used along with alternate new generation cobalt and copper electrolytes. Among various organic dyes, heterocycles, mainly N- and S-containing, have found immense applications as sensitizers. Indole fused heterocycles were used by different research groups in their dye designs, mainly as a donor and π-spacer. The planarity of these electron-rich fused indole systems is advantageous as it helps to initiate a more prominent ICT transition in dye molecules. In addition, the possibility for selective functionalization of N-atoms with long or branched alkyl chains prevents the aggregation of the sensitizer, increasing the solubility and is effective in custom design dyes which are in turn capable of preventing back electron transfer (recombination). Fused indole moieties utilized in the design of sensitizers are stable and offer easy synthesis. In the present review, we examine different indole fused heterocycles as building blocks for sensitizers used in DSSCs.

Graphical abstract: Indole fused heterocycles as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells: an overview

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
08 Jun 2021
Accepted
19 Aug 2021
First published
23 Aug 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Mater. Adv., 2021,2, 6136-6168

Indole fused heterocycles as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells: an overview

P. R. Nitha, S. Soman and J. John, Mater. Adv., 2021, 2, 6136 DOI: 10.1039/D1MA00499A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements