Design and synthesis of phenothiazine based push-pull organic sensitizers with benzimidazole as an auxiliary donor for DSC’s

Abstract

Three benzimidazole-phenothiazine based organic dyes (SS BP1, SS BP2 and SS BP3) configured with donor -donor-π spacer-acceptor (D-D-π-A) structures were synthesized with different acceptor units. The optical and electrochemical properties of the dyes was analyzed and compared with suitable references. Based on the obtained results the synthesized dyes are considered to have proper electronic energy levels as promising sensitizers in DSC's. This contribution brings further credit to these molecular designs as efficient sensitizers for DSCs, enroute for a cheap and less toxic substitute to ruthenium based sensitizers and silicon based photovoltaics as potential eco-friendly energy candidates in future.