Far-red active unsymmetrical squaraine dyes containing N-arylated indoline donors for dye sensitized solar cells

Squaraine dyes possess sharp far-red active transition with high extinction coefficient and form aggregates on TiO₂ surface. Aggregation of dyes on TiO₂ has been considered as a detrimental factor for DSSC device performance, which can be controlled by appending alkyl groups to the dye structures. Hence by integrating alkylated (alkyl groups with both in-plane and out-of-plane) aryl group with indoline moiety to make it compatible with other electrolytes and for controlling the dye-aggregation, a series of squaraine acceptor-based dyes SQA4-6 have been designed and synthesized. SQA4-6 dyes showed absorption between 642 and 653 nm (λ_max), photophysical and electrochemical studies indicated that the HOMO energy levels of this sets of dyes are well aligned with the potentials of I^-/ $$ and [Co(bpy)₃]^2+/3+ redox shuttles for better dye regeneration process. DSSC device efficiency of 3% has been achieved for SQA5 dye with iodolyte (I^-/ $$ ) electrolyte in the presence of 0.3 mM of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA). The IPCE profile of DSSC device fabricated with SQA4-6 dyes indicated the contribution of aggregated structures for the photocurrent generation.