Cocktail co-sensitization of porphyrin dyes with additional donors and acceptors for developing efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

With the purpose to develop efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a series of push-pull porphyrin dyes have been designed and optimized by introducing additional electron-donating diphenylamino and electron-withdrawing benzothiadiazole moieties. Electrochemical, photophysical and photovoltaic investigations indicate that the introduction of additional donors and acceptors can effectively extend the absorption spectra, resulting in better sunlight harvesting. However, the HOMO levels of the dyes are elevated by the additional donors, resulting in decreased driving forces for dye regeneration and decreased cell efficiencies. Upon coadsorption with 5 mM chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), the cell efficiencies can be elevated from 1.37% - 5.01% to 1.70% - 6.97%. Furthermore, based on the subtle absorption characteristics of the porphyrin dyes, we delicately designed a cocktail co-sensitization strategy using the solutions containing two of the porphyrin dyes as well as CDCA. Finally, a high photovoltaic efficiency of 8.6% was successfully achieved at an optimized molar ratio of 10:1 for the two porphyrin dyes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.