Mordant dyes as sensitisers in dye-sensitised solar cells

Many mordant dyes commonly used in the textile industry form coordination complexes at the surface of nanocrystalline TiO2. Dyes having a salicylate chelating group are particularly effective. Forty-nine commercial mordant dyes were studied as sensitisers in a non-optimised dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC) and their performance compared to the N3 ruthenium complex. Although N3 produced the highest output, six mordant dyes produced photocurrents >0.2 mA. UV–visible spectra of the dye-complexed photoanodes suggest that some mordant dyes are more strongly bound to the TiO2 surface than N3. Photocatalytic oxidation of these dyes does not appear to occur in a DSSC environment.