FABRICATION OF SOLID-STATE DYE-SENSITIZED TIO2 SOLAR-CELLS COMBINED WITH POLYPYRROLE

A solid-state solar cell was fabricated by photoelectrochemical polyme rization of pyrrole on porous nanocrystalline TiO2 electrode sensitize d by the Gratzel dye, cyanato)-N,N'-bis(2,2'-bipyridyl-4,4'-dicarboxyl ic acid)-ruthenium (II) dihydrate, [RuL2(NCS)(2)]), or a newly synthes ized cis-Ru(dcb)(2)(pmp)(2) (pmp = 3-(pyrrole-1-ylmethyl)-pyridine). P olypyrrole successfully worked as a hole-transport layer with improvem ent of the cell characteristics when the TiO2 cell with cis-Ru(dcb)(2) (pmp)(2) was compared with the similarly fabricated cells using [RuL2( NCS)(2)]. The improvement by using Ru(dcb)(2)(pmp)(2) can be explained as due to direct molecular wiring of the polymer-chain to the excited metal center of the complex. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All right s reserved.