Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Functionally Separated D‐π‐A Dyes with 2‐Cyanopyridine as an Electron‐Accepting and Anchoring Group

Abstract

Abstract Three functionally separated donor‐π‐acceptor ( D ‐π‐A) sensitizers CP ‐ I – III with a cyano group as the electron‐accepting group and a pyridine as the anchoring group have been developed for dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Significantly, the J sc of CP ‐ II , which contains a benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole moiety, is much higher than those of CP ‐ I and CP ‐ III , which contain quinoxaline and [1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4‐ c ]pyridine groups, respectively. This is not only a result of the good photon absorption, but also effective intramolecular charge transfer. The conversion efficiency ( η ) for CP ‐ II ‐based DSSCs is 4.02 %, which is far better than that of CP ‐ I and CP ‐ III . Also, the η value for CP ‐ II is much higher than that for the reference dye P ‐ II with pyridine as anchoring group.