Performance of four artificial chlorin-type sensitizers with different stereostructures in dye-sensitized solar cells

Four artificial chlorin-type sensitizers have been prepared and their photovoltaic performance in dye-sensitized solar cells has been evaluated. It was found that the photovoltaic performance increased with growing absorption intensity of the Q band in a TiO2 film. This result indicates the contribution of intrinsic enhanced absorption properties of chlorins in the Q band regions on the improvement of the overall photovoltaic performance in DSSCs. On the other hand, their capability of solar energy conversion also exhibits close relationship with the geometry of the four sensitizers, in which the orientation of a sterically demanding 2,6-dichlorophenyl group towards either the 5- or 15-position (the anchor group is at the 20-position) gives higher solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency.

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► Four chlorin-type sensitizers have been prepared by dipolar cycloaddition strategy.
► The Q-band absorption of sensitizers exhibit red shift and higher molar absorptivity.
► Their photovoltaic performance depends highly on the Q-band absorption on TiO2 film.
► Their photovoltaic performance relates with the steric hindrance of anchoring group.