Weakly Conjugated Hybrid Zinc Porphyrin Sensitizers for Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Molecularly engineered weakly conjugated hybrid porphyrin systems are presented as efficient sensitizers for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. By incorporating the quinolizino acridine and triazatruxene based unit as the secondary light-harvester as well as electron-donating group at the meso-position of the porphyrin core, the power conversion efficiencies of 4.5% and 5.1% are demonstrated in the solid-state devices containing 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis (N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spiro bifluorene as hole transporting material. The photovoltaic performance of the triazatruxene donor based porphyrin sensitizer is better than that of the previously published porphyrin molecules exhibiting strongly conjugated push–pull structure. The effect of molecular structure on the optical and electrochemical properties, the dynamics of charge extraction, as well as the photovoltaic performance are systematically investigated, which offers a new design strategy for further refinement of porphyrin molecules.