Synthesis of arylsulfanyl-subphthalocyanines and their ring expansion reaction

Abstract

For dye-sensitized solar cells, phthalocyanines require strong absorption of far-red light between 700 and 850 nm because of their high electron transfer efficiency. Nevertheless phthalocyanines lack of affinity to basal plats, they inhibit utilization as dye-sensitized solar cell photosensitizer. Then, subphthalocyanines are used as precursors to prepare asymmetric 3:1 type phthalocyanines using a ring-enlargement technique to give affinity to basal plates. As subphthalocyanines having arylsulfanyl substituents used as a precursor, asymmetric phthalocyanines are expected to have good affinity to basal plates. Spectroscopic properties and electron transfer abilities to synthesize non-peripheral arylsulfanyl-subphthalocyanines were estimated. In addition to prepare as trial, asymmetric 3:1 type phthalocyanine, hexakis[(4-methylphenyl)thio]phthalocyanine, was synthesized from corresponding subphthalocyanine.