NIR SENSITIZERS FOR DYE SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS - HEPTAMETHINE DYES WITH A GREAT SPECTRAL DIVERSITY ABOVE 700 NM

摘要

The company Solaronix and Empa focus on the development of new unsymmetrical heptamethine dyesfor application in dye sensitized solar cells. Because of their out-standing physical properties (e.g. high extinctioncoefficient and absorption maximum above 700 nm), these dyes are very promising NIR sensitizers. By skillfulcombination of different heterocycles and dianil derivatives, it is possible to synthesize and characterize variousfunctionalized unsymmetrical heptamethine dyes. Furthermore, the efficiency of industrial dye sensitized solar cellsprepared with such sensitizers is up to 1.3%. Remarkably, dye sensitized solar cells with heptamethine dyes, whichsolely absorb light in the NIR, appear in light yellow, the color of the electrolyte.