Coupling of a new porphyrin photosensitizer and cobaloxime cocatalyst for highly efficient photocatalytic H2evolution

202209_bcwwAccepted ManuscriptRGCOthersFaculty Niche Research Areas (IG-FNRA)from Research Committee of Hong Kong Baptist University; Science, Technology and Innovation Committee of Shenzhen Municipality; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE); Ms Clarea Au for the Endowed Professorship in EnergyPublishe

Self-assembled naphthalimide-substituted porphyrin nanowires for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

202308 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCOthersAustralia Research Council (ARC); Hong Kong Baptist University; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Ms. Clarea Au for the Endowed Professorship in EnergyPublishe

Iridium motif linked porphyrins for efficient light-driven hydrogen evolution via triplet state stabilization of porphyrin

202308 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCOthersHKBU; NSFC; PolyU; Endowed Professorship in Energy from Ms Clarea AuPublishe

Cocatalyst-free photocatalytic hydrogen evolution with simple heteroleptic iridium(III) complexes

Title in author's file: Co-catalyst-free Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution with Simple Heteroleptic Iridium(III) Complexes202308 bckwAccepted ManuscriptRGCOthersState Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis; President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Research Supervision; NSFC; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Clarea Au for the Endowed Professorship in Energy; Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE)Publishe

Benzimidazole-Branched Isomeric Dyes: Effect of Molecular Constitution on Photophysical, Electrochemical, and Photovoltaic Properties

Three benzimidazole-based isomeric organic dyes possessing two triphenylamine donors and a cyanoacrylic acid acceptor are prepared by stoichiometrically controlled Stille or Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction which predominantly occurs on the <i>N</i>-butyl side of benzimidazole due to electronic preferences. Combined with the steric effect of the <i>N</i>-butyl substituent, placement of the acceptor segment at various nuclear positions of benzimidazole such as C2, C4, and C7 led to remarkable variations in intramolecular charge transfer absorption, electron injection efficiency, and charge recombination kinetics. The substitution of acceptor on the C4 led to red-shifted absorption, while that on C7 retarded the charge transfer due to twisting in the structure caused by the butyl group. Because of the cross-conjugation nature and poor electronic interaction between the donor and acceptor, the dye containing triphenylamine units on C4 and C7 and the acceptor unit on C2 showed the low oxidation potential. Thus, this dye possesses favorable HOMO and LUMO energy levels to render efficient sensitizing action in solar cells. Consequently, it results in high power conversion efficiency (5.01%) in the series with high photocurrent density and open circuit voltage. The high photocurrent generation by this dye is reasoned to it exceptional charge collection efficiency as determined from the electron impedance spectroscopy

Design-to-Device Approach Affords Panchromatic Co-Sensitized Solar Cells

Data-driven materials discovery has become increasingly important in identifying materials that exhibit specific, desirable properties from a vast chemical search space. Synergic prediction and experimental validation are needed to accelerate scientific advances related to critical societal applications. A design-to-device study that uses high-throughput screens with algorithmic encodings of structure–property relationships is reported to identify new materials with panchromatic optical absorption, whose photovoltaic device applications are then experimentally verified. The data-mining methods source 9431 dye candidates, which are auto-generated from the literature using a custom text-mining tool. These candidates are sifted via a data-mining workflow that is tailored to identify optimal combinations of organic dyes that have complementary optical absorption properties such that they can harvest all available sunlight when acting as co-sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Six promising dye combinations are shortlisted for device testing, whereupon one dye combination yields co-sensitized DSSCs with power conversion efficiencies comparable to those of the high-performance, organometallic dye, N719. These results demonstrate how data-driven molecular engineering can accelerate materials discovery for panchromatic photovoltaic or other applications