One-pot synthesis of metal free organic dyes containing different acceptor moieties for fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells

A series of metal-free organic dyes containing diphenylamine or diethylamine as a donor which is linked to the acrylic acid or rhodanine-3-acetic acid as a acceptor and phenyl π-spacer were synthesized through one-pot Knoevenagel condensation reaction which are used as photosensitizers for the application of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Photophysical, electrochemical and DSSC performances were studied for the synthesized dyes of which diphenylamine donor and acrylic acid acceptor based dye (Ar-ma) show high electron life time and maximum power conversion efficiency under AM1.5 illumination (85 mW cm−2). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results and its theoretical calculation are found to have good agreements with the DSSC output performance.