Synthesis of silver nanoparticles by green chemistry and investigation of photovoltaic effects on some phthalocyanine compounds

Phthalocyanine compounds constitute an important potential for dye-sensitised solar cells. For this purpose, new phthalocyanine compounds were synthesised and characterised. The photovoltaic properties of these new phthalocyanine compounds were investigated both in pure form and by doping with silver nanoparticles. The silver nanoparticles used in doping were obtained by green chemistry method using six different types of plants. The plant species used in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles, Helichrysum italicum (leaf) (HY-AgNP), Helichrysum italicum (flower) (HC-AgNP) were collected from nature in July, Corydalis cava (CoV-AgNP), Nonea pulla (NP-AgNP), Chaerophyllum macrospermum (CM-AgNP) and Eremurus spectabilis (ES-AgNP) in May. The plants were dried and reduced to certain sizes. The extracts of the plants were then extracted by the extraction method. The plant extracts were mixed with the prepared 1 mM AgNO3 solution in a ratio of 1:20 and silver nanoparticles were synthesised by green synthesis method, which is both reliable and environmentally friendly technique. The structure of synthesised HY-AgNP, HC-AgNP, CoV-AgNP, NP-AgNP, CM-AgNP and ES-AgNPs were characterised by UV-vis spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR, TEM. Benzyl 2-(2-(3,4-dicyanophenoxy) phenoxy) benzoate compound (4) was synthesised as a starting material for phthalocyanine synthesis. From the reaction of this starting compound with zinc(II) chloride salt, 2, 10, 16, 24-tetrakis (benzyl 2-(2-(3,4- dicyanophenoxy) phenoxy) benzoate phthalocyaninato) zinc(II) (5) was obtained. Bis(3- chloropropanoate) phthalocyaninato silicon(IV) (6) was obtained from the reaction of SiPcCl2 with 3-chloropropionic acid. Bis-(2-(4-methylthiazol-5- yl)ethoxy)phthalocyaninato silicon (IV) (7) compound was obtained from the reaction of SiPcCl2 and 4-methyl-5-thiazolethanol. These new phthalocyanine compounds were characterised by FT-IR, UV-vis, mass and NMR spectroscopy. In the last step, the photovoltaic properties of the hybrid mixtures obtained by doping phthalocyanines with prepared AgNPs were investigated in comparison to pure phthalocyanine compounds. Keywords: AgNP, Dye-sensitised solar cells, DSSC, Photovoltaic cells, Phthalocyanine, Nanotechnology, Nanoparticles, Green synthesis