Two polymeric metal complexes based on polycarbazole containing complexes of 8-hydroxyquinoline with Zn(II) and Ni(II) in the backbone: Synthesis, characterization and photovoltaic applications

Abstract Two novel polymeric metal complexes PZn(Q) 2 –C and PNi(Q) 2 –C based on polycarbazole containing complexes of 8-hydroxyquinoline with Zn(II) and Ni(II) were synthesized and applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as photosensitizers. They possess moderate thermal stability and good open-circuit voltages, and the power conversion efficiency of them reached to 1.11% and 0.45%, respectively, under simulated AM 1.5 G solar irradiation (100 mW cm −2 ), which shows a new strategy to design photosensitizers for DSSCs.