4th Commonwealth Chemistry Posters

COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY METHODS TO IDENTIFY EFFICIENT COUMARIN DYES FOR SOLAR CELLS

T. O. Daniel1,2, L. Rhyman2,3 and P. Ramasami2,3

1DOT Materials Science Research Group, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, P.M.B 1010, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
2 Computational Chemistry Group, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius, Réduit 80837, Mauritius
3Centre for Natural Product Research, Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa
Corresponding author- danielojonugwathomas@gmail.com; daniel.thomas@funai.edu.ng

Introduction

Research on designing solar cells for low-cost sustainable energy production, reduction of dependency on finite fossil fuels and its environmental impact is a continuous focus.

Using dye-sensitized solar cells, hydrogen fuel and oxygen can be obtain by photocatalytic water splitting [1].

Hydrogen is an energy carrier with high energy density. When burned, it gives clean energy & water as opposed to fossil fuels to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal #7.

Coumarin dyes are popular due to their fluorescent properties and excellent stability in the sun over time.

However, the limitation with coumarin dyes is that they absorb light in the visible region but weakly over 700 nm, making it a challenge to extend their photoresponse in the visible region [2].

In this work, we studied eight new variants of C343 coumarin dye using computational chemistry techniques based on density functional theory and a solar cell capacitance simulator by changing the chromophoric system and modulating the electric field .

Why is this work important?

It allows for the evaluation of the suitability of novel coumarin dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) towards affordable & clean energy-Hydrogen fuel production thereby meeting the UN SDG 7

4th Commonwealth Chemistry Posters

Computational chemistry methods to identify efficient coumarin dyes for solar cells

Poster Presenter

Authors

Part of Topic

Video