Fabrication of photovoltaic cells using rhenium diimine complex containing polyelectrolytes by the layer-by-layer electrostatic self-assembly method

Abstract

A series of poly(p-phenylenevinylene)s polycations incorporated with rhenium(I) chlorotricarbonyl bis(phenylimino)acenaphthene complex and pendant pyridinium side groups was synthesized. Due to the presence of ionic pendant groups, the polymers could be used to form multilayer thin films with sulfonated polyaniline (SPAN) by the layer-by-layer (LbL) electrostatic assembly process. The rhenium complexes could function as photosensitizers and SPAN could serve as a charge carrying polymer, and the resulting multilayer films form the active layer of photovoltaic cells. Upon irradiation of the photovoltaic devices by simulated AM 1.5 solar light, the power conversion efficiencies were measured to be of the order of 10 -4%. Measurement of the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) at different wavelengths confirmed that the photosensitization was due to the presence of rhenium complexes in the polymer. The photocurrent generation and decay processes could be simulated by triexponential functions, which consisted of a rapid process followed by a relatively slow process. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.