A novel route to 4,4 '-disubstituted bipyridyl ligands in ruthenium complexes for dye-sensitized solar cells

摘要

An in situ nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction has been observed and applied as a simple route to introduce functionality to the 4,4' positions of bipyridyl units coordinated to a Ru(II) centre. This has been used in the synthesis of a new Ru(II) sensitiser complex [Ru-II(4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridyl)(4,4'-dithiocyanate-2,2'-bipyridyl)dithiocyanatel 1 for use in dye-sensitised solar cells. 1 exhibits improved light harvesting in the 350-450 nm region in comparison with N719 and produced cells with power conversion efficiencies of 3.18%. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.