Abstract
Regeneration and recombination kinetics was investigated for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using a series of different cobalt polypyridine redox couples, ranging in redox potential in between 0.34 and 1.20 V vs. NHE. Marcus theory was applied to explain the rate of electron transfer. The regeneration kinetics for a number of different dyes (L0, D35, Y123, Z907) by most of the cobalt redox shuttles investigated occurred in the Marcus normal region. The calculated reorganization energies for the regeneration reaction ranged between 0.59 and 0.69 eV for the different organic and organometallic dyes investigated. Under the experimental conditions employed, the regeneration efficiency decreased when cobalt complexes with a driving force for regeneration of 0.4 eV and less were employed. The regeneration efficiency was found to depend on the structure of the dye and the concentration of the redox couples. [Co(bpy-pz) 2 ] 2+ , which has a driving force for regeneration of 0.25 eV for the triphenylamine based organic dye, D35, was found to regenerate 84 % of the dye molecules, when a high concentration of the cobalt complex was used. Recombination kinetics between electrons in TiO 2 and cobalt (III) species in the electrolyte was also studied using steady state dark current measurements. This reaction occurred in the Marcus inverted region for most of the cobalt complexes, and recombination losses are thus not expected to be problematic for D35-sensitized DSCs employing cobalt complexes with high redox potentials. Recombination mediated by surface states was, however, found to significantly influence the result for the cobalt complexes with most positive redox potentials. The calculated system reorganization energies using Marcus theory from the regeneration kinetics and steady state current measurements were very similar, indicating that they are mostly determined by the cobalt mediator.