• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1050-1056
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• 2014

Dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated using natural dyes extracted from beetroot, rose and strawberry. The ZnO nanorod working electrode has been prepared by simple hydrothermal method. The crystallinity and morphology of the prepared electrode has been studied using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy techniques. The effect of natural dye extract temperature, pH of the dye and the solvent used for dye preparation on the solar cell characteristics have been studied. The efficiency of strawberry extract sensitized ZnO nanorod solar cells are found to be better than the other solar cells sensitized using beetroot and rose extracts.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2012.03a
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• pp.397-399
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• 2012

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have received considerable attention as the most promising candidates for renewable energy systems in recent years. Among these, organic dyes which have many advantages such as large absorption coefficients, customized molecular design for desired photophysical and photochemical properties, inexpensiveness and environment-friendliness, are suitable as photosensitizers for DSSCs. We have studied on the design and synthesis of two organic dyes (BECZ 1 and BECZ 2) with a 9-ethyl-9H-carbazole core for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Two organic dyes comprised of two 9-ethyl-9H-carbazole moiety as electron-donor, two types of cyanoacrylic acid moiety acting as acceptor. In addition, n-ethyl unit introduced for increasing the solubility and the donating power. The obtained organic dyes were comprehensively characterized by NMR, GC-MS, FAB-MS and UV/Vis spectroscopies. DSSCs sensitized by the dyes BECZ1 and BECZ2 produced ${\eta}$ value 3.31% and a ${\eta}$ value 3.21%.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.2553-2559
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• 2011

Two novel quinacridone (QNC) dyes with thiophene or benzene-conjugated bridge and cyanoacrylic acid acceptor were first designed and synthesized for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The absorption spectra, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of these dyes were investigated. Under simulated AM 1.5G irradiation conditions, the solar cell based on the quinacridone dye containing thiophene as a bridge unit had a short-circuit photocurrent density of 8.51 $mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, an open-circuit voltage of 643.6 mV, and a fill factor of 0.70, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 3.86%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.120.2-120.2
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• 2011

The improvement of solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency has continued to be an important research area of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The mechanism of DSSCs is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline TiO2 or ZnO. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO band gaps of dye moleculed in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. Organic dyes, because of their many advantages, such as high molar extinction coefficients, convenience of customized molecular design for desired photophysical and photochemical properties, inexpensiveness with no transition metals contained, and environment-friendliness, are suitable as photosensitizers for DSSC. We believe that practically useful organic dye photosensitizers can be produced by exploiting electron donor/acceptor system with proper length of ${\pi}$-conjugation in a chromophore to control the absorption wavelength and enhance the photovoltaic performance. In this research, We designed and synthesized organic dyes also investigated the photoelectrochemical properties of a series of ionic dyes in DSSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.119.1-119.1
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• 2011

Since Gratzel et al. reported the first efficient dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) in 1991, they have attracted much attention due to their relatively high power conversion efficiency and potentially low cost production. To date, high performance and good stability of DSSC based on Ru-dyes as a photosensitizer had been widely addressed in the literatures. However, the Ru-dyes are facing the problem of manufacturing costs and environmental issues. In order to obtain even cheaper photosensitizers for DSSC, the metal-free organic photosensitizers are strongly desired. The metal-free organic dyes offer superior molar extinction coefficients, low cost, and diverse molecular structures as compared to the conventional Ru-dyes, In this work, we have studied on the synthesis and characterization of the organo dendritic dyes containing different number of electron acceptor moieties in a molecule.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1973-1979
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• 2007

Novel organic dyes, JK-34, JK-35 and JK-36 containing bis-dimethylfluorenyl amino coumarin unit are designed and synthesized. Nanocrystalline TiO2 dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated using these dyes. Under standard global AM 1.5 solar condition, the JK-34 sensitized cell gave a short circuit photocurrent density of 10.05 mA cm?2, open circuit voltage of 0.65 V, and a fill factor of 0.68, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency η of 4.54%. We found that the power conversion efficiency was shown to be quite sensitive to the structural modifications of bridging thiophene moiety.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.2093-2098
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• 2013

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to determine the ground state geometries of indigo and new design dyes (IM-Dye-1 IM-Dye-2 and IM-Dye-3). The time dependant density functional theory (TDDFT) was used to calculate the excitation energies. All the calculations were performed in both gas and solvent phase. The LUMO energies of all the dyes were above the conduction band of $TiO_2$, while the HOMOs were below the redox couple (except IM-Dye-3). The HOMO-LUMO energy gaps of new design dyes were smaller as compared to indigo. All new design dyes were strongly red shifted as compared to indigo. The improved light harvesting efficiency (LHE) and free energy change of electron injection ${\Delta}G^{inject}$ of new designed sensitizers revealed that these materials would be excellent sensitizers. The broken coplanarity between the benzene near anchoring group having LUMO and the last benzene attached to TPA unit in all new design dyes consequently would hamper the recombination reaction. This theoretical designing will the pave way for experimentalists to synthesize the efficient sensitizers for solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.117.1-117.1
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• 2011

We have demonstrated Forst-type resonance energy transfer (FRET) in the quasi-solid type dye-sensitized solar cells between organic fluorescence materials as an energy donor doped in polymeric gel electrolyte and ruthenium complex as an energy acceptor on surface of $TiO_2$. The strong spectral overlap of emission/absorption of energy donor and acceptor is required to get high FRET efficiency. The judicious choice of energy donor allows the enhancement of light harvesting characters of energy acceptor in quasi-solid dye sensitized solar cells which increase the power conversion efficiency. The enhanced light harvesting effect by the judicious choice/design of the fluorescence materials and sensitizing dyes permits the enhancement of photovoltaic performance of DSSC.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.3211-3217
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• 2013

Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations have been employed to investigate the molecular structures and absorption spectra of three D-${\pi}$-A-type organic dyes (C1-1, D5 and TH208) containing identical ${\pi}$-spacers and electron acceptors, but different aromatic amine electron-donating groups (tetrahydroquinoline, triphenylamine and phenothiazine). The coplanar geometries indicate that the strong conjugation is formed in the dyes. The electronic structures suggest that the intramolecular charge transfer from the donor to the acceptor occurs, and the electron-donating ability of tetrahydroquinoline is stronger than those of triphenylamine and phenothiazine. The computed orbital energy levels of these dyes confirm that the electrons could be injected from the excited dyes to the semiconductor conduction band and the oxidized dyes could be reduced effectively by electrolyte. The TD-DFT results show that the CAM-B3LYP/6-31+G(d, p) is suitable for calculating the absorption spectra. The first absorption band for these dyes is assigned to the HOMO${\rightarrow}$LUMO and HOMO-1${\rightarrow}$LUMO transitions.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1533-1536
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• 2013