New tetrazole-based organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells

A series of new metal-free organic dyes that contain donors with triphenylamine or its derivatives and tetrazole-based acceptors were synthesized and characterized by photophysical, electrochemical, and theoretical computational methods. They were applied in nanocrystalline TiO₂ solar cells (DSSCs). It is found that the introduction of diphenylamine units as antennas in the as-synthesized dyes could improve photovoltaic performance compared with phenothiazine and carbazole units as antennas in DSSCs. The dye with (2H-tetrazol-5-yl) acrylonitrile electron acceptor also displayed the highest solar-to-electrical energy conversion efficiency.