Improved performance with molecular design of Ruthenium(II) complexes bearing diamine-based bidentate ligands as sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC)

Abstract

Herein, the derivatives of ruthenium (II) complexes bearing different diaminobenzene backbones were produced with the idea of molecular design and characterized. These complexes which are intended to be used as photoactive dyes in a DSSC device also contain suitable optoelectronic properties and the ligands capable of acting in accordance with the DSSC mechanism.The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the first series synthesized ruthenium (II) complexes (5-8A) in DSSC tests were obtained in the range of 0.64–2.25%. Among these backbone structures, the superiority of the benzophenone structure, namely 8A, has been observed and its derivatives have been produced as a second series. The ruthenium (II) complexes produced as 8B and 8C were tested to see the effect of different functional groups on solar cell performances and although the power conversion efficiencies of these complexes were lower than the performance of 8A, they approached with 1.63% and 2.05% values. Thus, the effect of different functional and backbone group structures in the molecular structure on DSSC efficiencies was determined directly and it was emphasized that there could be significant increases in cell performances with the change of simple functional groups.