A high molar extinction coefficient charge transfer sensitizer and its application in dye-sensitized solar cell

A high molar extinction coefficient charge transfer sensitizer tetrabutylammonium [Ru(4,-carboxylic acid-4′-carboxylate-2,2′-bipyridine)(4,4′-di-(2-(3,6-dimethoxyphenyl)ethenyl)-2,2′-bipyridine)(NCS)2], is developed which upon anchoring onto nanocrystalline TiO2 films exhibit superior power conversion efficiency compared to the standard sensitizer bistetrabutylammonium cis-dithiocyanatobis(4,4′-dicarboxylic acid-2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (N719). The new sensitizer anchored TiO2 films harvest visible light very efficiently over a large spectral range and produce a short-circuit photocurrent density of 18.84 mA/cm2, open-circuit voltage 783 mV and fill factor 0.73, resulting remarkable solar-to-electric energy conversion efficiency (η) 10.82, under Air Mass (AM) 1.5 sunlight. The Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) excited state calculations of the new sensitizer show that the first three HOMOs have ruthenium t2g character with sizable contribution coming from the NCS ligands and the π-bonding orbitals of the 4,4′-di-(2-(3,6-dimethoxyphenyl)ethenyl)-2,2′-bipyridine. The LUMO is a π* orbital localized on the 4,4′-dicarboxylic acid-2,2′-bipyridine ligand.

Graphical abstractA high molar extinction coefficient charge transfer ruthenium sensitizer [Ru(4,-carboxylic acid-4′-carboxylate-2,2′-bipyridine)(4,4′-di-(2-(3,6-dimethoxyphenyl)ethenyl)-2,2′-bipyridine)(NCS)2] anchored onto a nanocrystalline TiO2 films achieve very efficient sensitization in the visible region yielding under AM 1.5 sunlight a short-circuit photocurrent density of 18.84 mA/cm2, the open-circuit voltage was 783 mV and a fill factor of 0.73, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 10.82%.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide