Influence of acetylene-linked π-spacers on triphenylamine–fluorene dye sensitized solar cells performance

• We synthetized four new dyes based in triphenylamine and fluorene connected by different acetylene linkages.
• Electron transfer properties increase dramatically by shortening the length between donor and acceptor.
• Photovoltaic performance of the new dyes were measured at 1.5 AM and it depends of the length of the acetylene linkage.

Four new organic dyes, 1–4, containing triphenylamine (TPA) donors connected through different acetylene linkages to fluorene bridges and cyanoacrylic acid acceptors were designed and synthetized for photoconversion in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Their absorption spectra, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties were investigated. Shortening the bridge between the TPA moiety and the anchoring group leads to a dramatic increase in the overall photoconversion efficiency (1>3>4>2).

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