Substitution of Ethynyl-Thiophene Chromophores on Ruthenium Sensitizers: Influence on Thermal and Photovoltaic Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Malapaka Chandrasekharam, Ganugula Rajkumar, Thogiti Suresh, Paidi Yella Reddy
2012 Advances in OptoElectronics  
A new high molar extinction coefficient ruthenium(II) bipyridyl complex, "Ru(2,2-bipyridine-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid)(4,4′-bis((3-hexylthiophen-2-yl)ethynyl)-2,2′-bipyridine)(NCS)2(N(C4H9)4),MC101" was synthesized and fully characterized by1H-NMR, ESI-MASS, FT-IR, UV-Vis., and fluorescence spectroscopes. The dye showed relatively high molar extinction coefficient of 25.0 × 103 M-1cm-1atλmaximum of 544 nm, while the referenceC101 has shown 15.8 × 103 M-1cm-1atλmaximum 528 nm. The monochromatic
more » ... dent photon-to-collected electron conversion efficiency of 44.1% was obtained forMC101 over the entire visible range, while theC101 sensitized solar cell fabricated and evaluated under identical conditions exhibited 40.1%. The DSSCs fabricated with 0.54 cm2active area TiO2electrodes and high efficient electrolyte (E01), from the sensitizersMC101 andC101 exhibited energy conversion efficiencies of 3.25% (short-circuit current density (JSC) = 7.32 mA/cm2,VOC= 610 mV, ff = 0.725) and 2.94% (JSC= 6.60 mA/cm2;VOC= 630 mV; ff = 0.709), respectively, under air mass of 1.5 sunlight.
doi:10.1155/2012/482074 fatcat:vts3wdsujnck3kqgfa3svuq6fe