Synthesis, Characterization and Performance Studies of a New Metal-Free Organic Sensitizer for DSSC application

Abstract

In this present work we report, design, synthesis and performance studies of a new metal-free organic dye (N, N'-PABA) based on N,N-dimethyl-4-vinyl aniline carrying 4-amino benzoic acid as acceptor, as sensitizers for sensitizing photoanode (TiO2). In the sensitizers, N,N-dimethylaniline ring acts as anelectron donorwhile para amino benzoic acid function as electron acceptor/anchoring units. It was synthesized via condensation reaction starting from simple 4-(N,N-dimethyl amino)benzaldehyde and their structures were confirmed using spectral techniques like FTIR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR, MS and elemental analysis. Further, it was subjected to electrochemical and optical characterization in order to evaluate their band gap and absorption/emission behavior. Further, DFT studies were performed using turbo mole V6.6 software package to evaluate their optimized geometry and FMO levels. Finally, DSSC devices were fabricated using this dye under simulated solar radiation AM1.5G and result revealed that it shows a conversion efficiency of 1%. � 2018 Elsevier Ltd.