The effects of second electron acceptor group on the performance of tetrazole-based nanocrystalline TiO2 sensitizers in DSSCs

Three new organic sensitizers with two electron acceptor groups were synthesized and applied to nanocrystalline TiO2 solar cells. The ethyl 2-(1H-tetrazol-5-y1) acetate, (2H-tetrazol-5-yl) acrylonitrile and 1H-tetrazole-5acetic acid moieties were introduced to the triphenylamine as electron acceptor groups. The photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of the solar cells based on the synthesized sensitizers were studied and compared with their counterparts of single electron acceptor type. Quantum chemical calculations were also carried out to consideration of the electronic and optical properties of these dyes. The dye with the (2H-tetrazol-5yl) acrylonitrile electron acceptors showed the absorption maxima in the longer wavelength, compared to the dyes with ethyl 2-(1H-tetrazol-5-y1) acetate and 1H-tetrazole-5-acetic acid. The solar cell based on the dye with 1H-tetrazole-5-acetic acid showed the highest conversion efficiency of 3.53% (open circuit voltage = 569 my, short circuit photocurrent density = 11.50 mA cm(-2), and fill factor of 54% under AM 1.5G conditions). The results also showed that the dyes with two electron acceptor groups gave the higher performance than the dyes with single electron acceptor. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.