The enhanced efficiency to 3.6% based on organic dye as donor and Si/TiO2 acceptor bulk hetero-junction solar cells

•New efficient dyes have been synthesized and characterized.•Charge transport and electronic properties have been studied.•Organic–inorganic photovoltaic devices were fabricated.•The maximum efficiency 3.6% has been observed.

The efficient organic dyes 2-{4-[2-(2-hydroxybenzylidene)hydrazino]phenyl}ethylene-1,1,2-tricarbonitrile and 2-{4-[2-(4-hydroxybenzylidene)hydrazino]phenyl}ethylene-1,1,2-tricarbonitrile have been synthesized, characterized and fabricated as hetero-junction solar cell materials. We use B3LYP/6-31G*, B3LYP/6-31G** and HF/6-31G** level of theories to optimize the ground state geometries. The absorption wavelengths have been computed by using time dependent density functional theory which is in good agreement with the experimental data. The hetero-junction solar cell devices have been fabricated by organic–inorganic heterojunction (dye/Si/TiO2) and measured the efficiency by applying the incident power 30, 50 and 70 mW/cm2. The maximum efficiency 3.6% for dye2 has been observed. We shed light on the electronic and charge transport properties. Moreover, the stability and external quantum efficiencies have been measured.

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