Carboxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene- and carboxy-2,6-naphthylene-vinylene unsymmetrical substituted zinc phthalocyanines for dye-sensitized solar cells

Two unsymmetrical Zn(II) phthalocyanines 1 and 2 bearing an anchoring carboxylic function linked to the phthalocyanine ring through different rigid arylenevinylene bridges have been designed for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications. The phthalocyanines 1 and 2, when anchored onto nanocrystalline TiO2 films, yielded 30% incident monochromatic photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) and 2% power conversion efficiencies under AM1.5 sun.