Abstract. Cis-di(thiocyanato)-bis(4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine) ruthenium(II) (N3) has been used as the standard complex in the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). This research studies the N3s which are commercial (N3-1) and synthesized (N3-2 to N3-5) in DSSC as the dyes sensitizer. We found that the varied power efficiencies were observed from 4.54 to 5.92%. The TGA and FT-IR techniques were employed to measure the small molecules that cannot identify by NMR spectra. The results clearly seen that the N3s have a different content in water and methanol residuals which affect the N3s solubility leading to the varied performance in DSSCs.

Ruthenium(II) complexes were synthesized and characterized for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with varied alkyl chains specifically methyl (PC01), hexyl (PC02) and octyl (PC03). The photophysical property was studied by UV-Visible absorption. The results showed that the main absorption peaks were asigned to the metal to ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transition (350-600 nm). The incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) covered the entire visible spectrum reaching to 18-20% at 520 nm. The DSSC performances were investigated with liquid iodide/tri-iodide electrolyte under standard AM 1.5. PC01-PC03 showed that the power conversion efficiency (h) were obtained at 3.08%, 3.18% and 3.14%, respectively, compared with N719 (7.80%). Interestingly, PC02 and PC03 showed the long term stability with %hlossbetter than the standard up to 1000 h.