Porphyins have highly tunable optical properties.  By altering thegroups bound to the periphery of the molecule as well as the centralmacrocycle we synthesized a series of new porphyrinic molecules withsharp absorption peaks between 350 and 500 nanometers which are usedto increase the spectral coverage of bulk heterojunction solar cells.To each new molecule we appended long alkane chains to increasesolubility in solvents which spin cast well to reduce environmentalimpact of the manufacturing process of the devices and increasereproducibility. The extended side chains also promote liquid crystallike phase behavior which favors electron transfer and decreasescharge recombination at the critical donor acceptor interface. Themolecules will later be blended with already synthesized and testedphthalocyanine molecules in an attempt to approach full spectralcoverage and thereby maximize the efficiency of the cell.

Synthesis and application of novel
porphyrins for use in solar cells

240th National Meeting (2010)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.

Synthesis and application of novel porphyrins for use in solar cells