Efficient thiocyanate-free sensitizer: a viable alternative to N719 dye for dye-sensitized solar cells

Dalton Trans. 2012 Jul 7;41(25):7604-8. doi: 10.1039/c2dt30697b. Epub 2012 May 18.

Abstract

We have designed and synthesized a new thiocyanate-free sensitizer coded as SPS-01 and used it as the sensitizer in a TiO(2) based nanocrystalline dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). SPS-01 exhibits strong visible absorption properties with maximum peak around at 532 nm. The overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a DSSC sensitized with SPS-01 (7.96%) is higher than that of N719 (7.30%) under identical experimental conditions. This high PCE is attributed mainly due to the improvement in the short circuit current.