Organic Dyes Incorporating the Dithieno[3′,2′:3,4;2″,3″:5,6]benzo[1,2-c]furazan Moiety for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

New D-π-A'-π-A type sensitizers (JH dyes), comprised arylamine as the electron donor, dithieno[3',2':3,4;2″,3″:5,6]benzo[1,2-c]furazan (DTBF) in the conjugated spacer, and 2-cyanoacrylic acid as both the acceptor and anchor, have been synthesized. The JH dyes have broad absorption spectra covering the range of 350 to 600 nm with the highest molar extinction coefficient up to >40 000 M(-1) cm(-1). The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated from the dyes exhibited light-to-electricity conversions ranging from 1.42 to 6.18% under simulated AM 1.5 G illumination. Upon adding 10 mM CDCA as the coadsorbent, the best performance cell has the power conversion efficiency of 7.33%, which is close to that of N719-based standard DSSC (7.56%).