Faculty Publications
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/18736
Publications by NITK Faculty
Browse
8 results
Search Results
Item New carbazole based metal-free organic dyes with D-?-A-?-A architecture for DSSCs: Synthesis, theoretical and cell performance studies(Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Naik, P.; Elmorsy, M.R.; Su, R.; Babu, D.D.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.Herein we report the design, synthesis and photovoltaic performance studies of three new D-?-A-?-A architectured organic chromophores (N1-3) derived from (Z)-3-(9-hexyl-9H-carbazol-3-yl)-2-(thiophen-2-yl) acrylonitrile scaffold. In the new design, the electron rich carbazole unit is connected to three different electron withdrawing/anchoring species, viz. cyano acetic acid, rhodanine-3-acetic acid and barbituric acid via cyano vinyl thiophene as ?-spacer. Newly synthesized dyes were characterized by spectral, photophysical and electrochemical analyses. Their optical band-gap, GSOP and ESOP values, as calculated from the optical and CV studies were found to be in the range of 2.12–2.21, ?5.52 to ?5.43 and ?5.40 to ?3.25 eV respectively. The DFT and TD-DFT studies were performed using Turbomole 7.1V software and the results indicated the existence of proper charge separation between HOMO and LUMO levels of the dyes. Also, the results revealed good matching of theoretically generated optical spectral data with the experimental values. Finally, DSSC devices were fabricated using these three dyes and the dye N1 containing cyanoacetic acid as an acceptor unit showed better photo conversion efficiency (?) of 3.55% than the other two dyes. It's JSC, VOC, and IPCE parameters were shown to be 9.06 mA cm?2, 0.577 V and 48%, respectively. The obtained EIS data and electron lifetimes of N1–3 sensitized devices are well in accordance with experimental photovoltaic parameters. © 2017 Elsevier LtdItem Exploring the application of new carbazole based dyes as effective p-type photosensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells(Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Naik, P.; Planchat, A.; Pellegrin, Y.; Odobel, F.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.Herein, we report the design and the synthesis of three new D-A type metal-free carbazole based dyes (C1–3) as effective photosensitizers for p-type DSSCs. In this new design, the electron rich carboxy substituted carbazole unit has been attached to three different electron withdrawing species, viz. N,N-dimethyl barbituric acid, N,N-diethyl thiobarbituric acid and N-ethyl rhodanine. They were well-characterized by spectral, photophysical and electrochemical analyses. Further, their optical and electrochemical parameters along with molecular geometries, optimized from DFT have been employed to apprehend the effect of structures of C1–3 on their photovoltaic performances. Further, the photovoltaic performance of C1–3 was determined along with the standard dye P1 and their PCE values were found to be in the order of P1 (0.047%) > C2 (0.040%) > C1 (0.016%) > C3 (0.001%). Interestingly, the NiO based p-type DSSC fabricated with C2 carrying electron withdrawing N,N-diethyl thiobarbituric acid displayed VOC as 59 ± 4 mV and FF as 29 ± 1%, which are higher than that of benchmark reference P1. This is attributed to the highest light harvesting ability, the greatest regeneration driving force and the lowest interfacial charge recombination of C2 among the tested dyes. Conclusively, the results showcase the potential of carbazole based D-A type sensitizers in the development of efficient p-type DSSCs. © 2017 Elsevier LtdItem Synthesis and photovoltaic performance of a novel asymmetric dual-channel co-sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cell beyond 10% efficiency(Elsevier Ltd, 2017) Babu, D.D.; Su, R.; Naik, P.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.In this paper, we report the design and synthesis of a new bi-anchoring indole based co-sensitizer DBA-8 with A-?-D-A (acceptor-? bridge-donor-acceptor) architecture, carrying indole moiety as a donor and barbituric acid as acceptor/anchoring groups. Its photo-physical and electrochemical properties along with molecular geometries, calculated from Density Functional Theory (DFT) are employed to comprehend the effect of co-sensitizer structure on photovoltaic characteristics of DSSCs. The abovementioned organic dye (DBA-8) was employed as a co-sensitizer along with well-known ruthenium based sensitizer NCSU-10 in order to broaden the spectral responses of the co-sensitized DSSC. In the present work, for the first time we are demonstrating the profound role of a dual-anchoring co-sensitizer that can play in ameliorating the overall performance of a solar cell. The photovoltaic studies indicated that, the co-sensitizer DBA-8 succeeded in increasing the light harvesting ability in the device significantly. Notably, the device co-sensitized using 0.2 mM DBA-8 along with ruthenium based chromophore NCSU-10, showed a maximum efficiency of 10.68% (Jsc = 25.14 mAcm?2, Voc = 0.695 V, ff = 61.2%). Further, the good agreement between the theoretically and experimentally obtained ?max data vindicate that, the energy functional and basis set employed in this study can be successfully utilized for predicting the absorption spectra of new photosensitizers, with great precision before synthesis. Furthermore, all these findings showcase the vast potential of bi-anchoring molecules in improving the overall performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells. © 2017 Elsevier LtdItem New carbazole based dyes as effective co-sensitizers for DSSCs sensitized with ruthenium (II) complex (NCSU-10)(Elsevier B.V., 2018) Naik, P.; Su, R.; Elmorsy, M.R.; El-Shafei, A.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.Herein, we report the design and synthesis of three new D–A type metal-free carbazole based dyes (S1–3) as effective co-sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) sensitized with Ru(II) complex (NCSU-10). In this new design, the electron rich carbazole unit was attached to three different electron withdrawing/anchoring species, viz. 4-amino benzoic acid, sulfanilic acid and barbituric acid. The dyes were characterized by spectral, photophysical and electrochemical analysis. Their optical and electrochemical parameters along with molecular geometries, optimized from DFT have been employed to apprehend the effect of the structures of these co-sensitizers on the photovoltaic performances. Further, S1–3 dyes were co-sensitized along with a well-known NCSU-10 dye in order to broaden the spectral response of the co-sensitized devices and hence improve the efficiency. The photovoltaic performance studies indicated that, the device fabricated using S1 dye as co-sensitizer with 0.2 mM of NCSU-10 exhibited improved PCE of 9.55% with JSC of 22.85 mA cm?2, VOC of 0.672 V and FF of 62.2%, whereas the DSSC fabricated with dye NCSU-10 (0.2 mM) alone displayed PCE of 8.25% with JSC of 20.41 mA cm?2, VOC of 0.667 V and FF of 60.6%. Furthermore, electronic excitations simulated using time-dependent DFT, were in good agreement with the experimentally obtained results of the co-sensitizers, indicating that the exchange-correlation function and basis set utilized for predicting the spectra of the co-sensitizers are quite appropriate for the calculations. In conclusion, the results showed the potential of simple organic co-sensitizers in the development of efficient DSSCs. © 2017 Science PressItem New cyanopyridine based conjugated polymers carrying auxiliary electron donors: From molecular design to blue emissive PLEDs(Elsevier Ltd, 2020) Pilicode, N.; Naik, P.; K M, K.M.; Acharya, M.; Satyanarayan, M.N.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.Three new D-A (Donor-Acceptor) configured conjugated polymers, i.e. PPy1-3, centered on strong electron accepting cyanopyridine scaffold carrying varied auxiliary donors, viz. phenylene (PPy1), biphenyl (PPy2), and fluorene (PPy3) were designed and synthesized as blue emitters for PLEDs. The new polymers were subjected to spectral, thermal, photophysical and electrochemical characterization. Also, computational studies (DFT) were performed on the repeating units of polymer using Turbomole 7.2 V software package at the B3LYP/TZVP hybrid levels. Further, their weight average molecular masses were found to be 38.8 kDa, 38.9 kDa and 57.7 kDa, respectively as determined by GPC technique. Furthermore, the new polymers PPy1-3, were shown to be stable thermally up to 308–374 °C. Evidently, they exhibited good photophysical behavior with their optical energy band gaps of 2.53–2.64 eV. Finally, the polymers PPy1-3 were employed as an active emissive layer in standard ITO/PEDOT:PSS/Polymer/Al configured PLEDs. Interestingly, at 12 V all the newly fabricated devices exhibit a stable blue characteristic electroluminescence with low threshold voltages of 3.40–5.20 V, confirming an efficient injection of electrons in the diodes. From the results, it is clear that, the polymers PPy1-3, can be considered as prospective blue light emitters for PLED application. © 2019 Elsevier LtdItem A simple D-A-?-A configured carbazole based dye as an active photo-sensitizer: A comparative investigation on different parameters of cell(Elsevier B.V., 2020) Babu, D.D.; Naik, P.; Keremane, K.S.An organic photosensitizer (DP-1) with D-A-?-A architecture was systematically analyzed along with our previously reported dye N1. In the design, the dyes carry carbazole as donor, thiophene acetonitrile as ?-spacer connected to varied acceptor/anchoring unit i.e., cyanoacrylic acid (N1) and 4-aminobenzoic acid (DP-1). Generally, cyanoacrylic acid and carboxyl groups have been investigated extensively as effective electron acceptor/anchoring unit for the design of the sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) application and displayed superior photon conversion efficiency. In the present work, both the dyes were taken up for various studies focusing on photophysical, electrochemical, theoretical and photovoltaic investigation in the corresponding solar cells. From the photophysical and electrochemical studies it was established that, the both dyes show upright thermodynamic feasibility for electrochemical processes in the cell i.e., both electron and dye regeneration. Also, the DFT studies appends the existence of feasible HOMO-LUMO charge distribution. Finally, the devices fabricated by employing these dyes as sensitizer with 10 mM DCA as co-adsorbent. The device based on N1 displayed improved photon conversion efficiency compared to the cell sensitized using DP-1. This work may provide a new strategy for designing efficient photosensitizers to further ameliorate the DSSCs performance. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.Item Nicotinonitrile centered luminescent polymeric materials: Structural, optical, electrochemical, and theoretical investigations(John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2020) Pilicode, N.; Naik, P.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.Herein, we describe the design, synthesis, and structural characterization of three new push-pull type conjugative polymers, that is, VPPy1-3 comprising strong electron-withdrawing N-heterocyclic nicotinonitrile scaffold coupled with electron-donating phenylene units through vinylene bridges, as promising candidates for optoelectronic applications. They were successfully synthesized from their respective co-monomers by simple polycondensation synthetic routes, viz. Knoevenagel and Wittig reactions. All the polymers were subjected to photophysical, electrochemical, thermal, and theoretical studies in order to ascertain their suitability in polymer light-emitting diode applications as blue emitters. Evidently, they are readily soluble in most of the organic solvents, enabling them easy solution-processable. These new polymers display strong blue photoluminescence at the peak in the range of 431 to 462 nm with a wide optical bandgap in the order of 2.55 to 2.63 eV. The obtained electrochemical data were employed to evaluate their HOMO/LUMOs. The density functional theory calculations generated useful information on their FMO, molecular geometries, and electronic properties. Also, the influence of their structural modification on the above-said properties was discussed in detail to reveal the structure-property relationship. Conclusively, these results illustrate the great prospective of this class of polymeric materials for the application in solution-processable blue LEDs. © 2020 Society of Plastics EngineersItem Synthesis, optical, electrochemical, and computational investigation of new cyanopyridine-centered organic dyads(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Naik, P.; Pilicode, N.; Keremane, K.S.; Acharya, M.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.Herein we report the molecular design, synthesis, and inclusive investigation of four novel di-anchored symmetric dyes (CP1-4) centered on electron deficient cyanopyridine scaffold as possible photosensitizers for DSSC application. These new chromogens (CP1-4) comprise a powerful electron-withdrawing cyanopyridine moiety linked with additional electron attracting functionalities such as cyanoacetic acid (CP1), 3-(carboxymethyl) rhodanine (CP2), 2,4,6-pyrimidinetrione (CP3), and 2,6-dihydroxy-2-mercaptopyrimidine (CP4), as effective acceptor/anchoring units via biphenyl donor units. Their in-depth optical and electrochemical behaviour were investigated to assess their suitability as photosensitizers. Further, the molecular modeling calculations were undertaken to understand their ground state properties and energy level potentials. The comprehensive studies revealed that they own all the requisites to performance as a potential photosensitizer for DSSC application. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.