Simple Metal-Free Dyes Derived from Triphenylamine for DSSC: A Comparative Study of Two Different Anchoring Group

We synthesized two new organic dyes (KNS1 and KNS2) based on the triphenylamine (TPA) core structure. Both of the dyes contain triphenylamine and thiophene moieties as an electron donor and cyanoacrylic acid and rhodanine-3-acetic acid units as electron acceptors. Nanocrystalline TiO2 based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using these dyes to investigate the effect of two different anchoring groups on their photovoltaic performance. The DSSCs based on KNS1 and KNS2 showed power conversion efficiency (PCE) of about 2.01% and 2.95%, respectively. The PCE has been significantly improved upto 3.53% and 3.00%, upon addition of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) to the dye solution.

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