Pyrimidine-2-carboxylic Acid as an Electron-Accepting and Anchoring Group for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

We report a new dye (INPA) adopting pyrimidine-2-carboxylic acid as an electron-accepting and anchoring group to be used in dye-sensitized solar cells. IR spectral analysis indicates that the anchoring group may form two coordination bonds with TiO₂ and so facilitate the interaction between the anchoring group and TiO₂. The INPA-based cell exhibits an overall conversion efficiency of 5.45%, which is considerably higher than that obtained with cyanoacrylic acid commonly used as the electron acceptor