Combining electron-accepting phthalocyanines and nanorod-like CuO electrodes for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells

A route is reported for the synthesis of two electron-accepting phthalocyanines featuring linkers with different lengths as sensitizers for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Importantly, our devices based on novel nanorod-like CuO photocathodes showed high efficiencies of up to 0.191%: the highest value reported to date for CuO-based DSSCs. The longer the better: Novel electron-accepting zinc phthalocyanines with different linker lengths performed well in combination with nanorod-like CuO electrodes in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells. A particularly high efficiency of 0.191% was observed with a photosensitizer containing a carboxyethynyl anchor (see picture; R is a branched alkyl group).