Dye sensitized solar cell fabricated using a cobalt nitrate complex containing phosphoramide ligands

A cobalt nitrate complex containing phosphoramide ligands with formula Co(NO3)2(L)(CH3OH), where L = (4-NO2-C6H4NH)P(O)Cl(NH-C5H4N-2), was synthesized and characterized. The 31P{1H} NMR spectrum of complex 1 revealed a singlet pea at -2.27 ppm confirimg the purity of this compound. The fluorescence spectrum of compound 1 displayed that the (max) of emission was appeared at 413.5 nm. The SEM micrograph indicated that the nanoparticle diameters were about 20-50 nm and they had a spherical morphology. The TEM image of dye 1 illustrated that size of all the particles were below ~25 nm and their agglomeration formed almost spherical shapes. The DFT calculations showed that the energies of HOMO and LUMO orbitals of phosphoramide ligand and compound 1 at B3LYP level were equal to -7.182, -3.213 eV and -6.728, -3.824 eV, respectively. The HOMO and LUMO energies of the TiO2 were obtained as -7.031, -4.947 eV. The cobalt nitrate complex was used as dyes for absorbing light in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and the efficiency of the cell was obtained equal to 0.49%.

Keywords:

Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) , Nanoparticle , Phosphoramide complex , NMR , fluorescence spectroscopy , DFT calculations.