Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cells based on a dual anchored diphenylpyranylidene dye and N719 co-sensitization

Abstract To explore the co-sensitizing ability of 2,6-diphenyl-4H-pyranylidene (DP) dye, a novel dye W2 with dual anchor was synthesized, characterized and studied for the application of dye-sensitized solar cells. The results showed that the power conversion efficiency of W2 achieved 4.77% and further improved to 5.56% with 30 mM of chenodeoxycholic acid added as co-absorbent. Solar cell based on N719 + W2 co-sensitization system exhibited enhanced photocurrent than the reference N719 dye, promoting the power conversion efficiency from 7.77% to 8.20% and enhanced to 8.49% in presence of co-absorbent. These elevated superior performance resulted mainly from a there higher molar extinction coefficient of dye W2 in range of 325–475 nm complementing the light-harvest ability of N719 dye.