The Stille Reaction: Applications in the Synthesis of Organic Dyes for DSSCs

The cross-coupling reaction of organic electrophiles with organostannanes, traditionally known as the Stille reaction, has found renewed interest in the preparation of new organic materials such as conjugated polymers, organic semiconductors and photoactive molecules for use in organic photovoltaics. Moreover, a very recent field in which the Stille reaction has found successful application is that of the design and synthesis of new photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). DSSCs are considered a promising alternative for energy production from renewable sources. In such devices light harvesting is carried out by a dye which is generally a highly conjugated molecule. Due to the mild operating conditions and the high functional-group compatibility, the Stille reaction proved to be a powerful tool not only for the preparation of photosensitizers, but also to plan their chemical elaboration in order to tune and optimize their photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties. In this microreview some recent examples of the Stille reaction in the synthesis of organic dyes for DSSC are reported.