Theoretical design of metal-phthalocyanine dye-sensitized solar cells with improved efficiency

Synthesis and Characterization of New Zinc Phthalocyanine - Dodecenyl Succinic Anhydride Benzoic Groups

BACKGROUND

The phthalocyanines a series of compounds involves four iso-indole units linked by aza nitrogen atoms bonded with metal atoms that are normally located in the center a phthalocyanines ring. Some of the central metal-phthalocyanines can be excited by ultraviolet light and emit a fluorescence in far-red region.

OBJECTIVE

To synthesize a derivative of phthalocyanines namely 4,4',4' '-tri-(dodecenyl succinic anhydride)- 4' ' '-(5-amino salicylic acid) zinc phthalocyanine with a zinc central metal.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The reaction of 4- nitro Phthalonitrile and 4- amino Phthalonitrile with ZnCl2 in the presence of dimethyl amino ethanol afforded 4,4',4' '-triamino-4' ' '-nitro zinc phthalocyanine. This product reacted with 5-amino salicylic acid to yield tetra-(5-amino salicylic acid) zinc phthalocyanine. A dodecenyl succinic anhydride was added on the amine group of benzoic rings to afford 4,4',4' '-tri-(dodecenyl succinic anhydride)-4' ' '-(5-amino salicylic acid) zinc phthalocyanine(I), the target compound.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Compound I is successfully synthesized with a yield of 72% from tetra-(5-amino salicylic acid) zinc phthalocyanine with dodecenyl succinic anhydride.

CONCLUSION

The newly synthesized molecule of 4,4',4' '-tri-(dodecenyl succinic anhydride)-4' ' '-(5-amino salicylic acid) zinc phthalocyanine (I), tetra-(5-amino salicylic acid) zinc phthalocyanine(E) and 4,4',4' '- triamino-4' ' '-nitro zinc phthalocyanine (S). The reaction of 4- nitro Phthalonitrile and 4- amino and the structure of compound I is confirmed and its formation was proven.

Push-Pull Zinc Phthalocyanine Bearing Hexa-Tertiary Substituted Carbazolyl Donor Groups for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

An asymmetrical, push–pull phthalocyanine bearing bulky tert-butylcarbazolyl moieties as electron donor and carboxylic acid as anchoring group was synthetized and tested as a photosensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The new photosensitizer was characterized by 1H and 13C NMR, UV–Vis and mass spectrometry. The bulky tert-butylcarbazolyl moieties avoid the aggregation of the phthalocyanine dye. DFT studies indicate that the HOMO is delocalized throughout the π-electron system of the substituted phthalocyanine and the LUMO is located on the core of the molecule with a sizable electron density distribution on carboxyl groups. The new dye has been used as a photosensitizer in transparent and opaque dye-sensitized solar cells, which exhibit poor efficiencies related to a low Jsc.

Phthalocyanines core-modified by P and S and their complexes with fullerene C60: DFT study

Phthalocyanines (Pcs) and their derivatives have attracted a lot of attention because of their both biological importance and technological applications. The properties of Pcs can be tuned by replacing the central atom, by modifying the periphery of phthalocyanine ring, and by changing the meso-atoms. One more promising pathway for modifying Pcs and their derivatives can be the core-modification, or substitution of the core isoindole nitrogen(s) by other elements. Motivated by the results obtained for some core-modified porphyrins, we investigated computationally complete core-modification of regular Zn phthalocyanine (ZnPc) with P and S. We performed density functional theory studies of the structures, charges, and frontier molecular orbitals of P-core-modified and S-core-modified ZnPcs, ZnPc(P)4 and ZnPc(S)4, using both B3LYP and two dispersion-corrected functionals. Also, we studied computationally formation of complexes between the fullerene C60 and ZnPc(P)4 and ZnPc(S)4. Both ZnPc(P)4 and ZnPc(S)4 show strong bowl-like distortions similar to the results obtained earlier for ZnP(P)4 and ZnP(S)4. The size of the “bowl” cavity of the both core-modified Pcs is essentially the same, showing no dependence on the core-modifying element. For ZnPc(S)4, the HOMO is quite different from those of ZnPc and ZnPc(P)4. When the fullerene C60 forms complexes with the ZnPc(P)4 and ZnPc(S)4 species in the gas phase, it is located relatively far (4.30–5.72 Å) from the one of the P-centers and from the Zn-center of ZnPc(P)4, whereas with ZnPc(S)4 C60 forms relatively short bonds with the Zn-center, varying from ca. 2.0 to ca. 3.0 Å. The very strong deformations of both the ZnPc(P)4 and ZnPc(S)4 structures are observed. The calculated binding energy at the B3LYP/6-31G* level for the C60-ZnPc(P)4 complex is quite low, 1.2 kcal/mol, which agrees with the quite long distances fullerene - ZnPc(P)4, whereas it is noticeably larger, 13.6 kcal/mol, for the C60-ZnPc(S)4 complex which again agrees with the structural features of this complex. The binding energies of the complexes optimized using the dispersion-corrected functionals, CAM-B3LYP and wB97XD, are significantly larger, varying from ca. 14 till 52 kcal/mol which corresponds with the shorter distances between the fullerene and ZnPc(X)4 species.