The Development of Highly Fluorescent Hemicyanine and Dicyanoisophorone Dyes for Applications in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

Ruthenium-based metal complex dyes have been employed extensively in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as photosensitizers, but the cost and toxicity of metal complexes have promoted the development of metal-free organic dyes. The present investigation deals with the synthesis of hemicyanine and Dicyanoisophorone (DCI) based dyes adopting the D-π-A strategy, and their application on sensitization of nano-crystalline ZnO electrodes by appending the carboxyl (COOH) anchoring group as a pendant on the primary skeleton of dyes. Dyes have been characterized by UV, FTIR, and NMR spectroscopic studies.