New ruthenium sensitizer with carbazole antennas for efficient and stable Thin-film Dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A new heteroleptic ruthenium complex, coded CYC-B13, incorporating an antenna ligand composed of the sequential connection of a conjugated segment and carbazole hole-transport moiety was prepared. This new sensitizer exhibits the lower energy MLCT band centered at 547 nm with a high molar absorption coefficient of 1.93 ×104 M-1 cm-1. Thin-film cells based on this new sensitizer show good conversion efficiency (>8%) and excellent durability under light soaking at 60 °C in simulated sunlight for 1000 h. An all-solid state device based on CYC-B13 is also demonstrated to have a conversion efficiency of 3.8%. The photovoltaic data of DSCs sensitized with CYC-B13 suggested that carbazole is a photostable hole-transporting moiety to be used in dye-sensitized solar cells. © 2009 American Chemical Society.