Novel pyridoquinazolinone dyes for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Novel pyridoquinazolinone dyes were synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with benzene, thiophene and furan as π-bridge and cyanoacrylic acid as the electron acceptor. Their photophysical, electrochemical properties and photovoltaic performance were investigated. Moreover, density functional theory study of these dyes was performed. The results show that pyridoquinazolinone is an appropriate electron donor for the sensitizing dyes. Thiophene or furan bridge endows the dyes with better light-harvesting ability than benzene bridge, which subsequently bring about superior JSC. Among three DSSCs, DSSC based on dye with furan bridge shows the best photoelectric conversion efficiency 5.22% (VOC = 0.65 V, JSC = 11.66 mA cm−2, ff = 0.69).