• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.68-69
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• 2011

The process of charge transfer at the interface between two semiconductors or between a metal and a semiconductor plays an important role in many areas of technology. The optimization of such devices requires a good theoretical description of the interfaces involved. This, in turn, has motivated detailed mechanistic studies of interfacial charge-transfer reactions at metal/organic, organic/organic, and organic/inorganic semiconductor heterojunctions. Charge recombination of photo-induced electron with redox species such as oxidized dyes or triiodide or cationic HTM (hole transporting materials) at the heterogeneous interface of $TiO_2$ is one of main loss factors in liquid junction DSSCs or solid-state DSSCs, respectively. Among the attempts to prevent recombination reactions such as insulating thin layer and lithium ions-doped hole transport materials and introduction of co-adsorbents, although co-adsorbents retard the recombination reactions as hydrophobic energy barriers, little attention has been focused on the anchoring processes. Molecular engineering of heterogeneous interfaces by employing several co-adsorbents with different properties altered the surface properties of $TiO_2$ electrodes, resulting to the improved power conversion efficiency and long-term stability of the DSSCs. In this talk, advantages of the coadsorbent-assisted sensitization of N719 in preparation of DSSCs will be discussed.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.214-222
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• 2019

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been receiving growing attentions as a potential alternative to order photovoltaic devices due to their high efficiency and low manufacturing cost. DSSCs are composed of a photosensitizing dye adsorbed on a mesoporous film of nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ as a photoelectrode, an electrolyte containing triiodide/iodide redox couple, and a platinized counter electrode. To improve photovoltaic properties of DSSCs, new dicationic salts based on ionic liquids were synthesized. Quite comparable efficiencies were obtained from electrolytes with new dicationic iodide salts. The best cell performance of 7.96% was obtained with dicationic salt of PBDMIDI.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1973-1979
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• 2007

Novel organic dyes, JK-34, JK-35 and JK-36 containing bis-dimethylfluorenyl amino coumarin unit are designed and synthesized. Nanocrystalline TiO2 dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated using these dyes. Under standard global AM 1.5 solar condition, the JK-34 sensitized cell gave a short circuit photocurrent density of 10.05 mA cm?2, open circuit voltage of 0.65 V, and a fill factor of 0.68, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency η of 4.54%. We found that the power conversion efficiency was shown to be quite sensitive to the structural modifications of bridging thiophene moiety.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2010

Nanostructured metal oxides have been widely used in the research fields of photoelectrochemistry, photochemistry and opto-electronics. Dye-sensitized solar cell is a typical example because it is based on nanostructured $TiO_2$. Since the discovery of dye-sensitized solar cell in 1991, it has been considered as a promising photovoltaic solar cell because of low-cost, colorful and semitransparent characteristics. Unlike p-n junction type solar cell, dye-sensitized solar cell is photoelectrochemical type and is usually composed of the dye-adsorbed nanocrystalline metal oxide, the iodide/tri-iodide redox electrolyte and the Pt and/or carbon counter electrode. Among the studied issues to improve efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell, nanoengineering technologies of metal oxide particle and film have been reviewed in terms of improving optical property, electron transport and electron life time.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1225-1230
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• 2012

A new unsymmetrical zinc phthalocyanine has been designed and synthesized based on the 'push-pull' and extended ${\pi}$-conjugation concept for the dye-sensitized solar cells. Three tert-butoxy groups, which act as electron releasing ('push'), enhance the solubility of phthalocyanine in common organic solvents and reduce the aggregation. Hydroxy substituted 9,10-anthraquinones act as electron acceptors ('pull') for the study of photoinduced electron transfer processes as well as grafting onto nanocrystalline $TiO_2$. The new unsymmetrical zinc phthalocyanine was fully characterized by FTIR, UV-vis, $^1H$ NMR, cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry. The new sensitizer was tested in dye-sensitized solar cells, and gave a better performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.466-467
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• 2006

The anatase particle was facetted at the free surface and a neck formation between the anatase particles prior to the phase transformation occured. This resulted in the severe lattice distortion at the region of the interface near the neck and this can act as the nucleation sites for the phase transformation. The grain growth of rutile particles after the phase transformation grew very fast by the sweeping phenomena of grain boundary. Therfore, It leaded to the microstructure without the rutile phase located in anatase particle.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.120.2-120.2
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• 2011

The improvement of solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency has continued to be an important research area of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The mechanism of DSSCs is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline TiO2 or ZnO. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO band gaps of dye moleculed in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. Organic dyes, because of their many advantages, such as high molar extinction coefficients, convenience of customized molecular design for desired photophysical and photochemical properties, inexpensiveness with no transition metals contained, and environment-friendliness, are suitable as photosensitizers for DSSC. We believe that practically useful organic dye photosensitizers can be produced by exploiting electron donor/acceptor system with proper length of ${\pi}$-conjugation in a chromophore to control the absorption wavelength and enhance the photovoltaic performance. In this research, We designed and synthesized organic dyes also investigated the photoelectrochemical properties of a series of ionic dyes in DSSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.117.2-117.2
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• 2011

Since Gratzel and co-workers developed a new type of solar cell based on the nanocrystalline TiO2 electrode, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention on account of their high solar energy-to-conversion efficiencies (11%), their easy manufacturing process with low cost production compared to conventional p-n junction solar cells. The mechanism of DSSC is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline TiO2. The oxidized dye is reduced by the hole injection process from either the hole counter or electrolyte. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO gap, of dye molecule in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. To date, high performance and good stability of DSSC based on Ru-dyes as a photosensitizer had been widely addressed in the literatures. DSSC with Ru-bipyridyl complexes (N3 and N719), and the black ruthenium dye have achieved power conversion efficiencies up to 11.2% and 10.4%, respectively. However, the Ru-dyes are facing the problem of manufacturing costs and environmental issues. In order to obtain even cheaper photosensitizers for DSSC, metal-free organic photosensitizers are strongly desired. Metal-free organic dyes offer superior molar extinction coefficients, low cost, and a diversity of molecular structures, compared to conventional Ru-dyes. Recently, novel photosensitizers such as coumarin, merocyanine, cyanine, indoline, hemicyanine, triphenylamine, dialkylaniline, bis(dimethylfluorenyl)-aminophenyl, phenothiazine, tetrahydroquinoline, and carbazole based dyes have achieved solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies up to 5-9%. On the other hand, organic dye molecules have large ${\pi}$-conjugated planner structures which would bring out strong molecular stacking in their solid-state and poor solubility in their media. It was well known that the molecular stacking of organic dyes could reduce the electron transfer pathway in opto-electronic devices, significantly. In this paper, we have studied on synthesis and characterization of dendritic organic dyes with different number of electron acceptor/anchoring moieties in the end of dendrimer. The photovoltaic performances and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) of these dyes were measured to evaluate the effects of the dendritic strucuture on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.89.1-89.1
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• 2010

Since Gratzel and co-workers developed a new type of solar cell based on the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ electrode, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention on account of their high solar energy-to-conversion efficiencies (11%), their easy manufacturing process with low cost production compared to conventional p-n junction solar cells. The mechanism of DSSC is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline $TiO_2$. The oxidized dye is reduced by the hole injection process from either the hole counter or electrolyte. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO gap, of dye molecule in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. To date, high performance and good stability of DSSC based on Ru-dyes as a photosensitizer had been widely addressed in the literatures. DSSC with Ru-bipyridyl complexes (N3 and N719), and the black ruthenium dye have achieved power conversion efficiencies up to 11.2% and 10.4%, respectively. However, the Ru-dyes are facing the problem of manufacturing costs and environmental issues. In order to obtain even cheaper photosensitizers for DSSC, metal-free organic photosensitizers are strongly desired. Metal-free organic dyes offer superior molar extinction coefficients, low cost, and a diversity of molecular structures, compared to conventional Ru-dyes. Recently, novel photosensitizers such as coumarin, merocyanine, cyanine, indoline, hemicyanine, triphenylamine, dialkylaniline, bis(dimethylfluorenyl)-aminophenyl, phenothiazine, tetrahydroquinoline, and carbazole based dyes have achieved solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies up to 5-9%. On the other hand, organic dye molecules have large ${\pi}$-conjugated planner structures which would bring out strong molecular stacking in their solid-state and poor solubility in their media. It was well known that the molecular stacking of organic dyes could reduce the electron transfer pathway in opto-electronic devices, significantly. In this paper, we have studied on synthesis and characterization of dendritic organic dyes with different number of electron acceptor/anchoring moieties in the end of dendrimer. The photovoltaic performances and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) of these dyes were measured to evaluate the effects of the dendritic strucuture on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.1311-1316
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• 2007

To develop photo-sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) used in harvesting sunlight and transferring solar energy into electricity, we synthesize novel Ru(II) polypyridyl dyes and describe their characterization. We also investigate the photo-electrochemical properties of DSCs using these sensitizers. New dyes contain chromophore unit of dafo (4,5-diazafluoren-9-one) or phen-dione (1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione) instead of the nonchromophoric donor unit of thiocyanato ligand in cis-[RuII(dcbpy)2(NCS)2] (dcbpy = 4,4'-dicarboxy- 2,2'-bipyridine) coded as N3 dye. For example, the photovoltaic data of DSCs using [RuII(dcbpy)2(dafo)](CN)2 as a sensitizer show 6.85 mA/cm2, 0.70 V, 0.58 and 2.82% in short-circuit current (Jsc ), open-circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency (Eff), which can be compared with those of 7.90 mA/ cm2, 0.70 V, 0.53 and 3.03% for N3 dye. With the same chelating ligand directly bonded to the Ru metal in the complex, the CN ligand increases the Jsc value by double, compared to the SCN ligand. The extra binding ability in these new dyes makes them more resistant against ligand loss and photo-induced isomerization within octahedral geometry.