Light harvesting and efficient energy transfer in boron dipyrrin dyads and derivatization for potential utility in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

In bichromophoric supramolecular systems light is harvested by antenna components and excitation energy is channeled into an acceptor component. We have designed and synthesized novel energy transfer cassettes which are based on boradiazaindacene (BODIPY) units. Facile synthesis of long wavelength absorbing distyryl BODIPY dyes has been applied successfully in this study. In the first part of the thesis, efficient energy transfer from energy donor BODIPYs to long wavelength absorbing distyryl BODIPY core was demonstrated. To observe the antenna effect quantitatively, we have designed the cassettes with an increasing number of energy donor components. Based on these observations, in the second part of the thesis, we have introduced a light-harvesting photosensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) purposes. The target molecule absorbs in visible and near-IR region and energy transfer is demonstrated successfully. Our design appears to be highly promising for DSSC.