Core and End-Capped Engineering as a Powerful Tool in the Search of Long-Term High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

In the search of new electroactive organic dyes in dye-sensitized solar cells technology, a series of D-π-A assemblies, named as TA-BTD-CNCOOH, OMeTA-BTD-CNCOOH, TA-Y6-CNCOOH, and OMeTA-Y6-CNCOOH is rationally designed and synthesized, in which precise modifications have been carried out in order to obtain structure-performance relations in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells. After careful evaluation of the photophysical and electrochemical properties of these semiconductors, these systems are applied as active materials, showing high performance with power conversion efficiency maximum values of 9.05% and 18.5% for outdoor and indoor conditions, respectively. In addition, the best material of these organic architectures, TA-BTD-CNCOOH, shows an excellent long-term stability, up to 3,360 h, with no significant variance in its performance over time.