Indoline dyes with various acceptors for dye-sensitized solar cells

Owing to higher molar extinction coefficients, indoline dye sensitizers for DSSCs have been received much attention. In this study, four indoline dyes of D102, D131, D149 and Ddmc were designed with different acceptors and investigated theoretically by using DFT and TDDFT calculations. The calculated molecular orbital energies and structures are in good agreement with the experimental results. From the analyses for electronic and optical properties, it is found that the anchoring group of the dye should be close to its LUMO and have higher electron population for higher conversion efficiency as DSSC device. We suggest that newly designed Ddmc dye would be a good candidate as a dye sensitizer of DSSCs for its higher absorptivity as well as the proximity of the anchoring group to the LUMO of the dye. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.