Novel D-A-π-A type benzocarbazole sensitizers for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract Three D-A-π-A type benzocarbazole sensitizers were synthesized with benzothiadiazole as the auxiliary acceptor, aryl unit as π-bridge and cyanoacrylic acid as the acceptor. Their photophysical properties, electrochemical properties and photovoltaic performance were investigated based on different π-bridges. Electron-rich and easily polarizable furan and thiophene bridges contribute to better light-harvesting ability while bulky benzene bridge benefits the increase of loading amount on TiO 2 and the inhibition of charge recombination rate. Better photoelectric conversion efficiency ∼5.20% was achieved by DSSCs based on dye with furan bridge and dye with benzene bridge owing to the best J SC and V OC , respectively.