Mono- and bi-cyanoacrylic acid substituted phenothiazine based sensitizers for dye sensitized solar cells

Phenothiazine and cyanoacrylic acid moiety based sensitizers were synthesized for dye sensitized solar cell application. Absorption and electrochemical properties of the sensitizers having mono- and bi-substituted cyanoacrylic acids were studied. The mono-cyanoacrylic acid substituted phenothiazine sensitizer has more light harvesting ability due to its high molar extinction coefficient. The photovoltaic performance of mono-cyanoacrylic acid substituted phenothiazine sensitizer was slightly greater compared to the bi-cyanoacrylic acid substituted phenothiazine sensitizer which was attributed to the effect of anchoring groups in the sensitizer.