Full Visible Spectrum Panchromatic Triple Donor Dye for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

An organic dye with three electron donating groups is studied that has broad full visible spectrum panchromatic absorption in solution. The donor groups introduce six significant optical transitions spaced throughout the visible spectrum to give a dye with near uniform molar absorptivity across the visible spectrum. This unique material is characterized by optical, electrochemical, and computational methods. Within dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) devices, this material shows a strong photocurrent output of ∼20 mA/cm 2 with no cosensitization. DSC devices are characterized through impedance spectroscopy, current–voltage curve analysis, and incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency measurements. Importantly, minimal DSC device performance loss is observed after 500 h of continuous irradiation.