Metal-free organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells: recent advances

Near-infrared absorbing unsymmetrical Zn(II) phthalocyanine for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…, Zn 2 etc., and metal-free organic sensitizers have been designed for DSCs applications [15,16]. The highest reported DSCs efficiency exceeding 12% has been achieved by a Zn(II)…”

Design and synthesis of organic sensitizers with enhanced anchoring stability in dye-sensitized solar cells

“…Indeed, a multitude of organic dyes have been already prepared and tested in DSSCs [10,11], most of them sharing the same D-π-A architecture, characterized by electron-donating (D) and electron-accepting (A) groups linked by π-conjugated bridges. Obviously, immobilization of the adsorbed dye molecules to the surface of the semiconducting metal oxide nanoparticles represents a critical issue both to ensure an electrical current, whose generation starts with the injection of electrons from the dye into the conduction band of the metal oxide, and to achieve a stable attachment of the dye, which is essential to assure a long term stability to the final device.…”

Coplanar D-π-A organic sensitizers featuring a thienylethynyl spacer for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

“…1 2 Over the last few decades, many researchers have devoted their efforts to design and synthesize new photosensitizers, such as ruthenium polypyridine complexes and metal-free organic dyes. [3][4][5][6][7] Even if the ruthenium(II)-polypyridyl complexes allow for high power-conversion efficiency in DSSCs, these photosensitizers have major drawbacks, such as limited extinction coefficients, costly ruthenium metal and tricky purification.…”

“…The dyes can be easily tuned up by structural modification with the incorporation of substituents into chromophore skeletons. [7][8][9] For example, triphenylamine derivatives are commonly selected as the electron donor (D). A cyanoacrylic acid moiety is used as the electron acceptor (A) and anchoring unit for electron injection into TiO 2 .…”