Fabrication of three-dimentional triarylmethane polymers derivatives as efficient counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Through rational molecular design, two kinds of triarylmethane compounds of tris(2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4b][1,4]dioxin-5-yl)methane (TDM) and tri(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)methane (TPM) are successfully synthesized, and they are further made into counter electrode (CE) by facial chemical polymerization method. The as prepared three-dimentional (3D) PTDM nanosphere exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance as CE towards triiodide reduction reaction (TRR) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Particularly, the outstanding photovoltaic device prepared with 3D PTDM material realizes a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) as 8.34%, which is better than Pt (7.90%) and PTPM (4.15%). The success of PTDM further reveals that a rational molecular design is crucial for the sustainable development of high efficiency electrocatalytic counter electrode material in DSCs.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Through rational molecular design, two triarylmethane compounds were synthesized and made into counter electrodes. The prepared PTDM nanosphere showed excellent electrocatalytic performance in dye-sensitized solar cells, achieving a high power conversion efficiency.