The dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) proposed by Michael Gr�tzel is an attractive contender in the quest to identify alternate energy resource which is clean, cheap and renewable. Even though the cell displayed high efficiency of 11%, the associated toxicity and limited availability of the polypyridyl ruthenium complex used as photosensitizer steered the search for other cheaper organic dyes. In an attempt to identify new sensitizers, theoretical tools (B3LYP/6-31G*) have been applied to core modified porphyrin molecules to assess their suitability as sensitizers for DSSC. The designed composite photosensitizer consists of core modified porphyrin as donor, bridged at the �- position to the acceptor (cynoacrylic acid group) with a thiophene unit. Based on the electronic properties like HOMO-LUMO gap, position of HOMO-LUMO with respect to the conduction band of TiO2, UV-vis absorption spectra etc. the designed sensitizers are screened.

Probing the suitability of core modified porphyrin analogs as sensitizers for DSSC

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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