Synthesis and photophysical properties of donor–acceptor system based bipyridylporphyrins for dye-sensitized solar cells

Bipyridylporphyrin derivatives possessing a porphyrin moiety as the electron donor and bipyridyl moiety as the electron–acceptor were designed and synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells（DSSCs）. The photophysical and electrochemical properties were investigated by absorption spectrometry and cyclic voltammetry. Density functional theory（DFT） was employed to study electron distribution. From the photovoltaic performance measurements, a maximum conversion efficiency（η） of 0.38% was achieved based on the bipyridylporphyrin ruthenium dye A7(J= 1.33 mA/cm, V= 0.45 V, FF = 0.64) under 1.5 irradiation（100 mW/cm）.