Substituted and Anchoring Groups Improve the Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

A series of new Zn-porphyrin dyes (LYD-1 similar to 5) with various substituted and anchoring groups have been designed, fabricated and fully characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ultraviolet visible (UV-vis), and High Resolution Mass spectroscopy (HRMS). The solar cells sensitized by new dyes have been systematically investigated by photoelectrochemical experiments of current density-voltage (J - V), incident monochromatic photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) and electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS). The results show that the performance of DSC devices is deeply affected by the substituted and anchoring groups of dyes. The best solar cell sensitized by LYD-5 with alkoxyl donors and salicylic acid exhibits excellent photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 8.5% compared with 7.7% of YD2-o-C8-based solar cell under the same conditions. Their structural features and electron distribution of HOMOs and LUMOs are calculated computationally using a DFT method at the level of B3LYP/6-31G(d)/LANL2DZ.