Novel 1,2,4-triazole sensitizers using N-arylsydnone as Synthon: Synthesis, Spectral, electrochemical, DFT and photovoltaic properties

Two novel 1,2,4-triazolone derivatized triphenylamine (TPA) and phenothiazine (PTZ) based metal-free organic dyes have been designed, synthesized and anchored on 1D CdS nanowires to serve as photoelectrochemical (PEC) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Solution chemistry is employed simply and efficiently to link cadmium sulfide nanowires (CdS NWs) into a nano-network. Optical, electrochemical and density functional theory (DFT) have been well utilized to examine the properties of synthesized dyes (TPA and PTZ). In the visible range, sensitizer-anchored CdS NWs exhibit a wider region of light absorption referenced to naked CdS NWs. Comprehensive photovoltaic assessment showed that TPA and PTZ devices respectively showed IPCE 3.02 and 3.13 times more efficient than bare CdS NWs under standard sunlight (100 mW/cm2, AM 1.5G) illumination. The collected findings offer solid evidence for the existence of increasing external quantum efficiency (EQE) and exhibit good agreement with the optical experiments.