Far‐red active unsymmetrical squaraine dyes containing N‐arylated indoline donors for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Squaraine dyes possess sharp far‐red active transition with high extinction coefficient and form aggregates on TiO2 surface. Aggregation of dyes on TiO2 has been considered as a detrimental factor for DSSC device performance, which can be controlled by appending alkyl groups to the dye structures. Hence by integrating alkylated (alkyl groups with both in‐plane and out‐of‐plane) aryl group with indoline moiety to make it compatible with other electrolytes and for controlling the dye‐aggregation, a series of squaraine acceptor‐based dyes SQA4‐6 have been designed and synthesized. SQA4‐6 dyes showed absorption between 642 and 653 nm (λmax), photophysical and electrochemical studies indicated that the HOMO energy levels of this sets of dyes are well aligned with the potentials of I−/ and [Co(bpy)3]2+/3+ redox shuttles for better dye regeneration process. DSSC device efficiency of 3% has been achieved for SQA5 dye with iodolyte (I−/) electrolyte in the presence of 0.3 mM of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA). The IPCE profile of DSSC device fabricated with SQA4‐6 dyes indicated the contribution of aggregated structures for the photocurrent generation.