Synthesis of pyrene-centered D-π-a structured dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

An asymmetric pyrene derivative was designed as a dye with D-π-A structure. This dye was synthesized by the following steps (acylation reaction, Friedele Crafts acylation reaction, bromination reaction, Hagiharae Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction, and knoevenagel condensation reactions). The structure of the dye was analyzed and identified by FT-IR and 1H-NMR. The dye-sensitized solar cells were prepared with the dye and TiO2 electrode. Futhermore, the I-V curves and IPCE curves of the dye-sensitized solar cells were investigated detailedly. The result showed that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cells reached 33.5% of N719 dye cells.