• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.30 no.10
• /
• pp.2329-2337
• /
• 2009

Three heteroleptic ruthenium sensitizers, Ru(L)($L^1)(NCS)_2$ [L = 4,4'-dicarboxylic acid-2,2'-bipyridine, Ru-T1: $L^1$ = (E)-2-(4'-methyl-2,2'-bipyridin-4-yl)-3-(thiophen-2-yl)acrylonitrile, Ru-T2: $L^2$ = (E)-3-(5'-hexyl-2,2'-bithiophen-5- yl)-2-(4'-methyl-2,2'-bipyridin-4-yl)acrylonitrile, and Ru-T3: $L^3$ = (E)-3-(5"-hexyl-2,2':5',2"-terthiophen-5-yl)-2- (4'-methyl-2,2'-bipyridin-4-yl)acrylonitrile)], were synthesized and used as photosensitizers in nanocrystalline dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The introduction of the 3-(5-hexyloligothiophen-5-yl)acrylonitrile group increased the conjugation length of the bipyridine donor ligand and thus improved their molar absorption coefficient and light harvesting efficiency. DSSCs with the configuration of Sn$O_2$: F/Ti$O_2$/ruthenium dye/liquid electrolyte/Pt devices were fabricated using these Ru-$T1{\sim}T3$ as a photosensitizers. Among the devices, the DSSCs composed of Ru-T2 exhibited highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.84% under AM 1.5 G illumination (100 mW/$cm^2$).