Does the Donor-π-Acceptor Character of Dyes Improve the Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells?

We quantified the donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) character of a large number of dyes (116) used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and correlated them with the power conversion efficiency of the corresponding cell. The result indicates that there is no correlation between different measures of D-π-A strength and efficiency; that is, the effect of the D-π-A character is completely washed out by other effects. We propose that other design rules should be identified by statistically testing them against the now rich set of experimentally available data.