Synthesis of conjugated organic dyes containing alkyl substituted thiophene for solar cell

Three organic dyes, JK-41, JK-42, and JK-43 containing bis-dimethylfluoreneaniline and alkyl substituted thiophene unit are designed and synthesized. Under standard global AM 1.5 solar condition, the JK-41 sensitized cell gave a short circuit photocurrent density (J(sc)) of 15.23 mA cm(-2), open circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.67 V, and a fill factor of 0.67, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency eta of 7.69%. Molecular-orbital calculations of the three dyes suggest that the electron distribution moves from the aniline derivative to the cyanoacrylic acid moiety. We found that the power conversion efficiency was shown to be quite sensitive to the structural variations of alkyl substituted thiophene moiety. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.