Donor-acceptor-functionalized polymers for efficient light harvesting in the dye solar cell

This work describes the properties of a series of dye solar cells that were sensitized with hyperbranched polymers carrying two different chromophoric units. One of the units was a carboxylated ruthenium complex, acting as sensitizer and energy acceptor, while the other was a fluorescent dye, acting as additional light absorber and energy donor. Within this series of polymers the ratio between donor and acceptor entities (z(DA)) was varied between 0 and similar to 9. The influence of z(DA) on the cell's spectral properties was studied. Our key result is that current may be generated via the energy transfer from multiple energy donors to one acceptor unit within the dye solar cell. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.