Poster ID: EPSCOR0004 -Photovoltaics

Subnaphthalocyanine Ensembles – Efficient Electron Acceptors in Organic Photovoltaics

Riley Bagwell and L. C. Kasi Viswanath, Dept. of Chemistry, Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK. Faculty Advisor, Dr. Lakshmi Chockalingam Kasi Viswanath, Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, OK.

ABSTRACT
Reliable, renewable, and clean energy is growing in demand to keep up with our ever-growing society. With the consumption and depletion of the world’s sources of fossil fuels to meet the increasing demand that society has on energy resources, it is important to think of ways to obtain reliable energy without the consumption of the already limited supply of fossil fuels. One of the most important pieces of technology and innovation is the development of the photovoltaic cell or the solar cell. Photovoltaic cells use the photons emitted from the sun to interact with semiconductors to generate clean useful electricity. With the high demand of cheaper and cleaner sources of energy, there has been a major breakthrough in organic photovoltaics leading to the discovery of myriads of electron donor-acceptor conjugates for harvesting solar energy. When compared with subpththalocyanines (SubPc), the subnaphthalocyanine (SubNPc) entities have a longer pi conjugation system producing a red shift in the absorption spectrum making it more appealing to the present-day scientists in organic photovoltaics. Apart from their use in organic photovoltaic cells, they are also considered to be suitable candidates in photodynamic therapy as photosensitizing agents. Given the importance of Subnaphthalocyanines, this research aims to investigate the axial reactivity of subnaphthalocyanines through the formation of covalent bond to synthesize efficient electron acceptors for organic photovoltaics.