High molar extinction coefficient amphiphilic ruthenium sensitizers for efficient and stable mesoscopic dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Two efficient heteroleptic ruthenium (II) complexes, cis-di(thiocyanato)(4,4′-dicarboxylic acid-2,2′-bipyridine)(4,4′-bis(2-(3,5-di tert-butylphenyl)ethenyl)-2,2′-bipyridine) ruthenium (II) (HRD-1) and cis-di(thiocyanato)(4,4′-dicarboxylic acid-2,2′-bipyridine)(4,4′-bis(2-(2,3,5-trimethylphenyl)ethenyl)-2,2′-bipyridine) ruthenium (II) (HRD-2) were synthesized and characterized, which when anchored onto nanocrystalline TiO2 shows efficiency of 5.77 and 4.87% respectively, using durable redox electrolytes.