Use of acetic acid derivatives as additional absorbers in dye-sensitized solar cells

In this study, TiO2, which is widely preferred in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), was used for photoelectrode construction. Ruthenium-based N719 paint, which is the most studied paint, was preferred. In DSSCs, it is important that the dyes are coated in a single layer without coalescence or aggregation on the photoanode material to prevent self-extinguishing of dye electrons excited by sunlight. Therefore, 1-naphthalenetic acid (NAA), Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and Indole-3-butanic acid (IBA) were added to the dye solution as additional absorbers. The basic parameters of solar cells were examined comparatively and power conversion efficiencies of 3.13, 4.38, 0.95 and 0.21 were obtained for N719 dye, N719/NAA, N719/IAA and N719/IBA, respectively. In our study, it was observed that only NAA gave the expected result as an additional absorber.