New heteroleptic benzimidazole functionalized Ru-sensitizer showing the highest efficiency for dye-sensitized solar cells

• DOI: 10.1016/j.inoche.2014.10.033
• Publication Date: 2014-10-31T09:13:34Z
• Authors: T. Swetha; S. Niveditha; K. Bhanuprakash; Ashraful Islam; Liyuan Han; Idriss M. Bedja; Reza Fallahpour; Surya Prakash Singh
• Keywords: Benzimidazole; Terpyridine; Triiodide

Abstract We designed and synthesized a new ruthenium complex using terpyridine as an anchoring ligand and BOC (tert-butyloxycarbonyl) protected bidentate benzimidazole derivative as an ancillary ligand, coded as GS7. The complex was characterized using 1H NMR, FTIR, elemental analysis, UV–vis spectrophotometer, and cyclic voltammetry. We also tested photovoltaic performance of this complex for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSCs). GS7 when used as a sensitizer for DSSCs with iodine triiodide electrolyte, showed a Jsc of 15.25 mA cm− 2, a Voc of 0.576 V, a FF of 0.691 and overall power conversion efficiency of (η) 6.07%.