Surface Design in Solid-State Dye Sensitized Solar Cells: Effects of Zwitterionic Co-adsorbents on Photovoltaic Performance

In solid-state dye sensitized solar cells (SSDSCs) charge recombination at the dye-hole transporting material interface plays a critical role in the cell efficiency. For the first time we report on the influence of dipolar co-adsorbents on the photovoltaic performance of sensitized hetero-junction solar cells. In the present study, we investigated the effect of two zwitterionic butyric acid derivatives differing only in the polar moiety attached to their common 4 carbon-chain acid, i.e., 4-guanidinobutyric acid (GBA) and 4-aminobutyric acid (ABA). These two molecules were implemented as co-adsorbents in conjunction with Z907Na dye on the SSDSC. It was found that a Z907Na/GBA dye/co-adsorbent combination increases both the open circuit voltage (V-oc) and short-circuit current density (J(sc)) as compared to using Z907Na dye alone. The Z907Na/ABA dye/co-adsorbent combination increases the J(sc). impedance and transient photovoltage investigations elucidate the cause of these remarkable observations.