A Combined Experimental and Computational Investigation of Anthracene Based Sensitizers for DSSC: Comparison of Cyanoacrylic and Malonic Acid Electron Withdrawing Groups Binding onto the TiO2 Anatase (101) Surface

Four anthracene based sensitizers, 3-(anthracene-9-yl)-2-cyanoacrylic acid (M1), 2-cyano-3-(10-methoxyanthracene-9-yl)acrylic acid (M2), 2-(anthracene-9-ylmethylene) malonic acid (M3), and 2-((10-methoxyanthracene-9-yl)methylene)malonic acid (M4) were designed and synthesized to understand the binding modes of anchoring groups [GRAPHICS] on the natiocrystalline TiO2(101) surface and on the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). All four sensitizers have been fully characterized using ATR-FTIR, UV-vis, and CV. These sensitizers were tested in DSSCs using 0.05 M I-2, 0.5 M 1,2-dimethyl-3-n-propylimidazolium iodide (DMPI), and 0.5 M lithium iodide (LiI) in methoxypropionitrile (MPN) redox electrolyte. The sensitizers having a monocarboxylic acid group, i.e., M1 and M2, have shown marginally higher IPCE and efficiency than M3 and M4 having dicarboxylic acid groups. To have a detailed understanding of this behavior, the adsorption and binding energies to the TiO2 surface of these dyes have been investigated using computational techniques (periodic DFT). The studies show that the cyanoacrylic acid anchoring group has a stronger binding to the TiO2 surface compared to the malonic acid anchoring group.