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Open access peer-reviewed chapter - ONLINE FIRST
Perspectives of Organic Dyes Cosensitization and Its Utilization in TiO2 Nanoclusters for Photocatalysis Applications
Written By
Diana Barraza-Jiménez, Derian Manuel Lerma Mancinas, Hugo Iván Flores-Hidalgo, Raúl Armando Olvera Corral, Sandra Iliana Torres-Herrera and Manuel Alberto Flores-Hidalgo
Submitted: 29 August 2023Reviewed: 09 October 2023Published: 10 December 2023
Cosensitization has emerged as a method to improve performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and photocatalysis. In this work, it is proposed to use organic dyes as cosensitizers due to their friendliness with the environment and to the benefits of having two or more different dyes with complementary optical absorption characteristics. Several organic dyes are analyzed as cosensitizers to identify which dye combinations may be good choices to approach a panchromatic absorption spectrum emulating the solar emission spectrum. In addition to the analysis on the prospective sensitizers, it is presented results of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoclusters cosensitized with two anthocyanidins using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT). The nanocluster size proved to be definitive in the interactions with two molecule dyes. The selected (TiO2)4–5 nanoclusters cosensitized with two anthocyanidins produce data for a prospective analysis to suggest which dyes are good options for DSSCs and photocatalysis based on dye co-sensitization applications. At the end, one can look at this work as a perspective of which organic dyes may work well as cosensitizers and a contrast to original data from our experimentation with a couple of TiO2 nanoclusters cosensitized with two different anthocyanidins.
Department of Chemical Sciences, Scientific Computations Laboratory, Juarez University of Durango State, Durango, Mexico
Derian Manuel Lerma Mancinas
Department of Chemical Sciences, Scientific Computations Laboratory, Juarez University of Durango State, Durango, Mexico
Hugo Iván Flores-Hidalgo
Department of Protected and Sustainable Agriculture, Technology University of Camargo Campus Jimenez, Mexico
Raúl Armando Olvera Corral
Department of Chemical Sciences, Scientific Computations Laboratory, Juarez University of Durango State, Durango, Mexico
Sandra Iliana Torres-Herrera
Faculty of Forestry Science, Juarez University of Durango State, Mexico
Manuel Alberto Flores-Hidalgo*
Department of Chemical Sciences, Scientific Computations Laboratory, Juarez University of Durango State, Durango, Mexico
*Address all correspondence to: manuel.flores@ujed.mx, drjfmb@gmail.com
1. Introduction
Organic molecules are subject to research in applications as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) due to their energy generation potential and environmental friendliness during their manufacturing [1, 2, 3, 4]. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were reported for the first time in 1991 [2] by Grätzel; in this first design, they used ruthenium (II)-based dyes [2, 3, 4]. Alternatively, organic molecules as dye sensitizers are promising when used as consensitizers by using two or more organic molecules working simultaneously. Porphyrins and anthocyanidins are among the preferred organic molecule families studied [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Fundamental concepts related to DSSCs discussed are based on published research cases. A focus on dyes may be imprinted in the development of this work because we have the cosensitization process as the central topic of our discussion. Also, naturally obtained dyes are part of our main interests because they are a green option as dye sensitizers. For example, porphyrin-based dyes have been tested as viable options, and they displayed great flexibility in working as panchromatic sensitizers [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. The cosensitization fundamentals are discussed as well because this procedure has shown great potential to improve further the dye sensitization procedures [5].
As a briefcase for discussion, we present a short section with original data generated with DFT that includes geometric/structure and excited state data related to a titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocluster cosensitized with cyanidin and malvidin. Geometry/structure data is discussed as well as molecular orbitals (MOs) and absorption data for the individual species and the cosensitized system. The capabilities displayed in this case for the selected dyes, cyanidin, and malvidin, confirm they may be a good combination for dye cosensitization applications on TiO2 nanoclusters. Hopefully, the data and discussions included in this work will inspire us to find newer solutions based on cosensitized solar cells.
A selection of literature related to DSSCs, with a perspective toward the best sensitizers known. A few of the more important search engines worldwide to carry on with the literature selection. The selected editorials to analyze relevant published works were (a) Nature, (b) American Chemical Society (ACS), (c) Materials Research Society (MRS), (d) Elsevier, (e) MDPI, (e) Springer, (e) Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and (f) Google Scholar. From these search findings, the more relevant published titles were selected to obtain from them the desired information and data according to the scope of this work. The information included in this work pretends to aid the creativity to find out possible dye combinations that may work well in cosensitization systems. Some of the latest solar cell technologies are also discussed, and we use these same editorials as options to document our discussions.
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) began in 1991 with the first report by O’Regan and Grätzel [2]. They have gained considerable scientific interest due to their easy manufacturing process, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. The maximum photovoltaic power is reduced by 12.3% compared to conventional silicon solar cells [11, 12, 13, 14], which definitively convert photons from sunlight into electricity, consisting of working electrodes, sensitizers (dyes), redox mediators (electrolytes), and a counter electrode, where the Redox Reaction Electrode The electrolyte system can be connected and clamped between two glass plates at the photoanode and counter electrode [12]. Figure 1 displays the structure of a DSSC.
Figure 1.
(a) Basic structure of the DSSC device and (b) Sandwich type structure of a DSSC (Reproduced with permission) [15, 16, 17].
Table 1 shows a selection of the highest confirmed research cell conversion efficiencies according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) from 1976 to the present, where we placed DSSCs in new groups of solar cells with lower power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to four or more junctions because these representatives have the most efficient cells. The top-efficiency cells use inorganic components, while DSSCs can be based on organic sensitizers.
Top energy conversion efficiencies for different solar cell technologies [12].
The optimal performance of DSSC devices relies primarily on the titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructured electron transport layer [13]. Due to its chemical inertness, low cost, non-toxicity, tunable bandgap, and photoelectrochemical stability, TiO2 is the most widely used photoanode material [12]. Currently, this energy deficit has been addressed through the efficient production of solar energy using photovoltaic technology [14]. In a DSSC (Figure 1) two conductive glass electrodes consisting of a porous nanocrystalline broadband semiconductor metal oxide film coated with dye-adsorbed titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles were used (Figure 1).
Photocatalysis is generally defined as the catalysis of photochemical reactions on solid surfaces, usually semiconductors. Photocatalysts are substances that induce such stimuli and change the rate of a reaction without participating in the chemical reaction itself [15] went on to speed up chemical reactions by irradiating photosensitive materials with light. That is, semiconductors (SC) are often used as photosensitive materials [18]. Photocatalysis is a green technology with important applications in energy and the environment. Photocatalytic reaction refers to the process in which semiconductor photocatalysts promote the conversion of compounds under light conditions that can efficiently convert light energy into chemical energy [16]. Photocatalysis is the phenomenon of catalysis under the influence of photons. Efficient photocatalysts are conductive nanomaterials that directly absorb incident light so that they can reach a higher energy state. The photocatalysis process is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
(a) Photocatalytic process on semiconductor crystals and (b) graphic representation of the photocatalysis process using nanoparticles (Reproduced with permission) [17, 19].
In this context, TiO2 is used for photocatalysis as they are candidates for a wide range of applications such as hydrogen production, gas sensors, and supercapacitors [17], a property of great interest in dye-sensitized solar cells, where the dye is used together with a photocatalyst, which can be a semiconductor oxide such as TiO2 or zinc oxide (ZnO) [17, 20].
The sensitizing dye is a key component of DSSCs, as it determines light collection and charge generation during power conversion (Figure 3). The properties of paints that can be used as sensitizers are as follows: Carboxyl groups and/or hydroxyl groups are immobilized on the surface of oxide semiconductors [22]. Therefore, the performance of the battery depends mainly on the type of dye used as the sensitizer. Many metal complexes and organic dyes have been synthesized and used as sensitizers [23]. Among the dyes used for DSSCs as a sensitizer, dyes such as D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, Z907, N3, C101, NCSU-10, N719, D1-CM-A1, D2-CM-A2, D3-CM-A3, D4-CM-A4, D5-CM-A5, D6-CM-A6, Ru, organic dyes, among others, [23, 24, 25] some examples of these dyes/dyes are listed in Table 2.
Figure 3.
(a) Schematic representation of the prepared DSSCs and (b) operation of a DSSC and sensitizer (Reproduced with permission) [17, 19, 21].
Kinetic and energetic state diagram of a traditional DSSC [26].
On the other hand, natural dyes have several advantages over rare metal complexes (ruthenium-based complexes). To elucidate the phenomenon of operation of DSSCs, many researchers have studied in detail the physical dynamics and the dynamics of charge transfer motion (Figure 4) [27].
Figure 4.
Kinetic and energetic state diagram of a traditional DSSC (Reproduced with permission) [25].
It has been mentioned previously the existence of high-performance solar cell technologies as displayed in the NREL chart [12], and with special mention to perovskite solar cells [28, 29, 30], because of their great improvement potential, all of them represent the top efficiencies in solar cell technologies. An approach to improve DSSCs is using cosensitization as a common approach to improving the efficiency and stability of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The cosensitization strategy is used to broaden the light absorption spectrum, [31] in this sense, this strategy is based on using multiple dyes (for example, “dye cocktails”) to compensate and extend the range of response to light. The principle of function consists in a photo-conversion processes from cosensitizers across the activated joint mediator bridge, which is illustrated in Figure 5 [32]. DSSC cosensitization is an efficient method to achieve panchromatic light absorption. Semiconductor thin films are usually coated with two or more dyes with complementary absorption spectra [33].
Figure 5.
Schematic diagram of a dye cosensitized solar cell (Reproduced with permission) [31].
DSSCs are thin-film photovoltaic cells that mimic the process of photosynthesis occurring in plants. Sensitizers play a crucial role in light harvesting ability and PCE in DSSCs. The excited electrons are injected into the conduction band of the TiO2 electrode [34, 35] and adsorb sensitizers (dye molecules) on the outer circuit of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and left oxidation dye molecules D [36], then upon photon absorption, dye molecules are excited from the HOMO to the LUMO. The dye is regenerated by supplying electrons from an electrolyte, mainly from a redox system (iodide/triiodide pair) in an organic solvent [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Therefore, porphyrins and phthalocyanines have become the most widely used sensitizers, and in turn, these types of solar cells still have the potential to produce higher efficiencies in the future, as current efficiencies are still low, limited, and far from efficient, but in theory it is possible [35]. Although the energy conversion efficiency of DSSCs produced so far is lower than that of silicon cells, porphyrin-based DSSCs have achieved PCEs of more than 13%. Table 3 lists the different types of dyes and their % PCE, where we find different inorganic dyes examined [26, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46]. It has been reported that Pt can reach a higher PCE compared to the rest, [39] but, due to its high toxicity, it is not highly recommended to prevent unsafe consequences. CM402 and CM403 properly represent an inorganic dye of the same type, but they are analyzed separately due to the initial analysis conditions [36], the same case of SGT-149 and SGT-148 as reported to this date [37].
Organic dyes are commonly used in biology and medicine to highlight structures in biological tissues [42]. The sensitization of TiO2 with organic products has been widely studied as a method to improve its photocatalytic solar activity for water splitting [43]. The adsorption of dyes on TiO2 is usually directly related to the interaction between carboxyl groups and hydroxyl groups on the TiO2 surface or with Ti sites [44], where dye degradation because of the photocatalytic process depends on adsorption on the surface of the photocatalytic dye [45]. Unlike Ru complexes, organic dye DSSCs inject high-energy electrons into singlet states because the overall quantum yield of triplet states is very low [46]. However, the widespread application of ZnO is economically more advantageous than TiO2 due to its cost-effectiveness [47]. The photocatalytic degradation mechanism of the respective dyes suggests that radiation excites valence band electrons to the conduction band (Figure 6) [48] and that visible light irradiation of the dye in its ground state produces a high-energy excitation.
Figure 6.
(a) Mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of dyes and (b) photo-redox cycle catalyzed by dye (Reproduced with permission) [17, 48].
Organic dyes are one of the most attractive technologies for solar collection, given their theoretical potential to replace Ru and Pt. Table 4 shows the organic dyes selected for their high-energy conversion capabilities have been reviewed in the literature. Therefore, porphyrin is most used due to its ease of use in sensitization and cosensitization. Unlike beets, rhododendrons, pomegranate leaves, and blackberries do not reach 1% PCE and are therefore the main drawback of sensitized organic dyes, as the data in Table 2 reached between 20 and 40% of the power conversion capacity according to the NREL report [12].
According to the data obtained from NREL publications, [12] some PCEs are registered for multijunction cells such as Four-junction or more in 47.1% and three-junction in 44.4%, among other categories, we have perovskite cells in 31.3%, the Single-junction GaAs between 27.8 and 30.8%. There are multiple factors determining the dyes’ performance, and an example of the dye performance and how it is subject to these various factors is shown in Figure 7. A layer of organic dye L0Br in ethanol is applied in mesoporous ZrO2, and its absorption spectra are obtained with UV/Vis characterization. In a similar experiment, a layer of trans-L0Br organic dye in ethanol is applied to a mesoporous ZrO2 surface as well, and its absorption spectra are obtained using UV/Vis characterization [41].
Figure 7.
(a) UV/Vis spectra of previously irradiated (400 nm) L0Br in ethanol upon irradiation at 323 nm and (b) UV/vis absorption of trans-L0Br adsorbed onto nanostructured ZrO2 in inert gas upon irradiation at 400 nm (Reproduced with permission) [41].
The adsorption process of organic dyes in DSSCs needs to look at the isomerization and the change of local arrangements of molecules on surfaces as potential factors that may reduce the DSSC efficiency due to uncontrolled deactivation processes [41].
Nanoclusters (NC) are aggregates of countable particles that can exist in a gas or condensed phase; that is, they do not have a stable ligand shell [49]. The nanoclusters act as catalysts designed to increase the sensitivity and reduce the detection time, since TiO2 is a bandgap semiconductor, Figure 8 illustrates selected TiO2 nanoclusters [50]. The working principle of DSSC is based on the absorption of light by dyes immobilized on TiO2 anatase nanoparticles [53]. Because TiO2 absorbs ultraviolet light, the bandgap in the rutile phase is 3 eV and in the anatase phase is 3.2 eV [54], while the TiO2 bandgap for rutile and anatase is greater than 3 eV. Therefore, they only absorb ultraviolet light, which accounts for about 3% of the solar energy that reaches Earth [55].
Figure 8.
A model of two (TiO2)n nanoclusters with n = 4 and n = 5, respectively, with optimized geometry using DFT as implemented in the Gaussian16 program suite [52].
Figure 8 shows two nanoclusters that we have optimized using DFT with the Gaussian16 program suite [52] as an example of what TiO2 nanoclusters look like. These two nanoclusters may be sensitized using organic molecules that may improve their electronic properties and enable them to be better photocatalysts. These nanoclusters work well with two organic molecules, which may be a cosensitization model. After introducing the anthocyanidins, the cosensitization model will be displayed in the next sections.
Anthocyanins are salts of 2-phenylbenzopyranyl with multiple hydroxyl or methoxy substituents. They are natural plant pigments, mainly in the form of heteroglycosides (anthocyanidins), and the reds, purples, and blues are transferred to fruits and flowers, glycosylated [56, 57, 58]. Derived anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments primarily responsible for the characteristic color of many fruits, including sweet cherries. All anthocyanins are derived from specific. The core of the chromophore, phenylbenzopyridine or flavin, consists of two aromatic rings (see Figure 9) [20, 58].
Figure 9.
The central chemical structure of anthocyanidins. A; aromatic ring, B; phenyl ring, C; Benzopyran ring. R; –H, –OH or –CH3 (Reproduced with permission) [20].
Anthocyanins are flavonoids [58] that appear in flowers, fruits, roots, tubers, and leaves of many plants. Cyan is one of the most important pigments in the plant kingdom along with chlorophyll. Although hundreds of naturally occurring anthocyanins (more than 600) have been identified [58, 59], six anthocyanidins are shown in Figure 10, and these are among the most common within their family [60, 61, 62, 63].
Figure 10.
The structure of six anthocyanidin derivatives is among the most common within their family.
11. Cosensitized (TiO2)5 nanocluster
In this section a set of electronic structure DFT calculations based on a cosensitized TiO2 nanocluster from our own research are displayed and analyzed. The first set of results contains ground states geometry optimization data, mainly related to the structure geometry, the energy results including molecular orbitals, and HOMO-LUMO energy gap. In the second set of results includes excited state data with their corresponding molecular orbitals diagrams and absorption spectra based in TDDFT calculations.
11.1 Computational methods and details
Theoretical calculations were performed in the Gaussian16 (G16) programs suite [52]. Anthocyanidins geometry was relaxed with B3LYP/6–31 + g(d,p). Geometry optimizations and vibrational frequency analyses were carried out using DFT with B3LYP functional and 6–31 + g(d,p) basis set as implemented in the Gaussian16 program package [52]. Each geometry optimization was followed by a calculation of harmonic vibrational frequencies to confirm that the optimized geometry corresponds to a local minimum. The zero-point vibrational energy (ZPVE) scaling and the thermal correction (TC) at 298.15 K were also performed. Energy calculations were carried out for all molecules as well as TDDFT calculations to find out HOMO, LUMO, and absorption spectra.
11.2 Geometric structure of cosensitized TiO2 nanoclusters
This set of calculations included two (TiO2)n (n = 4–5) nanoclusters, and the cosensitization process was carried out using two selected anthocyanidins (cyanidin and malvidin). Figure 9 shows the structure that defines these two organic dye molecules interacting with the (TiO2)5 nanocluster. The geometry displayed in this exercise is one of many possible arrangements between these molecules and the nanocluster.
The arrangement depends on the interactions that the user would like to explore. In our case, we tested a nanocluster centralized near two anthocyanidins on opposite sides to simulate the electronic interaction between them. The sensitized (TiO2)4 geometry nanostructure works well with the organic molecules from a structural perspective, but when the electronic interaction is studied at excited states, it shows low adsorption capabilities. So, we will focus on the sensitized (TiO2)5 geometry nanostructure, which presents better adsorption capabilities. The geometry of the cosensitized system based on cyanidin-(TiO2)5-malvidin is displayed in Figure 11.
Figure 11.
Cosensitized (TiO2)5 nanocluster (in the middle) using cyanidin (left) and malvidin (right) as cosensitizers.
11.3 Electronic structure obtained from DFT calculations
Energy calculations for selected anthocyanidins were carried out with the B3LYP/631 + g(d,p) theoretical model using the gas phase. HOMO and LUMO molecular orbitals were calculated, and these values are displayed in Figure 12. The importance of molecular orbitals calculation relies on the possibility that energy orbitals in these pigments may overlap with a semiconductor energy orbital such as TiO2 or any of the two selected organic molecules, in this case, cyanidin and malvidin.
Figure 12.
MOs of individual TiO2 nanoclusters, organic molecules, and cosensitized structures using Gaussian16. (a) MOs of (TiO2)n n = 4 nanocluster; (b) MOs of (TiO2)n n = 5 nanocluster; (c) MOs for cyanidin organic molecule; (d) MOs for malvidin organic molecule; (e) MOs for cosensitized system formed by cyanidin-(TiO2)4-malvidin; and (f) MOs for cosensitized system formed by cyanidin-(TiO2)5-malvidin.
Molecular orbitals (MOs) and HOMO-LUMO data for the individual chemical species used in the cosensitization procedures are shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12 displays valuable information regarding the MOs of the two different nanoclusters, two organic molecules, and the cosensitized systems. One may notice that (TiO2)n nanoclusters have a wide HOMO-LUMO gap with 5.030 eV for (TiO2)4 and 4.802 eV for (TiO2)5. In contrast, cyanidin and malvidin have a narrower gap, with 2.666 eV and 2.543 eV, respectively. An important aspect of the organic molecules MOs is the LUMO energy bands, which are located at −6.551 eV and − 6.636 eV, respectively, which are lower energy bands than (TiO2)n (n = 4–5) LUMO energy levels which are located at −3.757 eV and − 3.871 eV, respectively. HOMO energy bands also contribute to a good potential combination between the semiconductor oxide nanoclusters and the organic molecules, but its contribution is smaller because HOMO energy levels for nanoclusters (−8.787- -8.673 eV) are near the organic molecules HOMO energy level (− 9.217- -9.179 eV). The cosensitized systems MOs are displayed in Figure 12 (e) and (f), and one can observe an interesting MOs distribution for the interaction of the nanocluster with these two different anthocyanidins that may work well as photovoltaic materials.
11.4 Excited states for absorption energies calculation using TDDFT
The excited states for the cyanidin-(TiO2)n-malvidin were calculated using TDDFT as implemented in Gaussian16 using B3LYP/6311 + g(d,p) theoretical method for selected anthocyanidins. It is known that cyanidin works in the orange-red region (orange means between 590 and 610 nm and red means between 610 and 700 nm) while malvidin works in the blue-red region (blue region means between 450 and 500 nm). The desired absorption spectrum for a dye sensitizer is to match the solar irradiation spectrum. The absorption property of the dye determines its light harvesting capability and thus affects the performance of dye sensitizers in DSSCs or photocatalysis so, this discussion focuses on the absorption spectra. Figure 13 shows the absorption spectra for the individual species and cosensitized system.
Figure 13.
Anthocyanidins excited states absorption spectra from results using TDDFT scheme for TiO2 nanoclusters, cyanidin, malvidin, and a cosensitized system formed by cyanidin-(TiO2)5-malvidin.
Our results are partially in accord with the two main regions in the anthocyanidins UV-Vis spectra reported by the literature. The first region reported is located between 260 and 280 nm, which, in our case, cyanidin and malvidin do not present; we believe this region may be present in other anthocyanidins. The second region reported by the literature is located at the visible region between 490 and 550 nm, and this one is clearly present in cyanidin and malvidin. This peak may be considered the main feature of these molecules. The visible and near UV regions are critical for the photon-to-current conversion, so microscopic information about the electronic transitions may be studied as well as MO properties.
The cosensitized system absorbs in the visible region, as shown in Figure 13. The sensitizer’s contribution is clear since the nanocluster absorption capabilities are almost null. The sensitizers used have strong oscillator strength, which decreases by half when the interaction with the (TiO2)5 nanocluster is present. At this point, we are searching the (TiO2)4 nanocluster cosensitization using different geometric arrangements between the nanocluster and the two molecules, cyanidin and malvidin.
12. Conclusions
Solar cells continue advancing; currently, multijunction cells are leading the efficiency rate (47.1%) among the different solar cell technologies. There are promising technologies such as perovskite solar cells that are interesting due to their great potential to continue improving with efficiencies of around 38% in the latest developments. DSSCs are important because they may be assembled with green materials or at least greener than other technologies. DSSCs performance has also improved, but there is a lot of work to be done to reach levels of efficiency as high as the leading technologies (DSSCs best efficiency is around 12.1%). From the DSSCs components, the dye sensitizer may be an improvement opportunity using the cosensitization procedure to get better conversion and advance this technology further. The best sensitizers are formed from inorganic materials, but organic materials are very important because they are mostly green materials. The problem with organic materials in DSSCs is that they have reached relatively low-efficiency conversion. It is needed to overcome the low efficiencies; in this way, the cosensitization procedures have emerged as one of the more promising techniques to address the efficiency problem. Among organic dyes, a few have reached levels over 10% of efficiency; one of these is porphyrin, which represents an interesting highlight for dye cosensitization procedures. Other dyes mentioned may provide a perspective for newer combinations by selecting the best results reported in the literature for individual dyes or other developments and finding a new combination or several others that may work together as cosensitizers. A combination of two different anthocyanidins working as cosensitizers applied in TiO2 nanoclusters is presented as an example of the theories discussed within this work. The anthocyanidins used as cosensitizers influence the MOs distribution of the interacting molecules with the nanostructured semiconducting oxide; such effect, overall, is responsible for new absorption capabilities of the whole system. The results found for this proposal are less beneficial than expected. The oscillator strength in the absorption spectrum was affected by the individual sensitizer with the new nanostructured cosensitized system. Then, the new MOs configuration needs reconfiguration. Theoretically, the same organic molecules may be reconfigured in different ways to obtain a new geometry for the nanostructured cosensitized system, and each reconfiguration will result in different electronic capabilities, so a lot of work can be done to improve this proposal. In the end, this work is an invitation to explore further the cosensitization process because there is a plethora of combinations of two or more sensitizers to be explored to create newer, more efficient solar cell materials.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the Scientific Computations Laboratory at FCQ-UJED for computational resources. Thanks to Academic Group UJED-CA-129 for valuable discussions.
Conflict of interest
The authors state that this research was completed without any conflicts of interest related to funding to develop the present work.
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Written By
Diana Barraza-Jiménez, Derian Manuel Lerma Mancinas, Hugo Iván Flores-Hidalgo, Raúl Armando Olvera Corral, Sandra Iliana Torres-Herrera and Manuel Alberto Flores-Hidalgo
Submitted: 29 August 2023Reviewed: 09 October 2023Published: 10 December 2023
Open access peer-reviewed chapter - ONLINE FIRST
