Organic dyes with oligo-n-hexylthiophene for dye-sensitized solar cells: Relation between chemical structure of donor and photovoltaic performance

Organic dyes with the oligohexylthiophene linkage having several donor parts, carbazole, indole, and indoline, were newly synthesized as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells. The carbazole was most efficient donor moiety for DSSCs among these dyes with the oligothiophene linkage. Carbazole dyes were adsorbed with larger amount of molecules on the TiO2 film than both indole dyes and indoline dyes. Therefore, both the V-OC and the electron lifetime of DSSCs with the carbazole dyes were highly observed. The decreasing of J(SC) of DSSCs with indole and indoline dyes also caused by the reducing the adsorption amount of dyes. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.