Combining electron-accepting phthalocyanines and nanorod-like CuO electrodes for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Angewandte Chemie - International Edition 54.26 (2015): 7688-7692, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201501550]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-ArchivingA route is reported for the synthesis of two electron-accepting phthalocyanines featuring linkers with different lengths as sensitizers for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Importantly, our devices based on novel nanorod-like CuO photocathodes showed high efficiencies of up to 0.191%: the highest value reported to date for CuO-based DSSCs. The longer the better: Novel electron-accepting zinc phthalocyanines with different linker lengths performed well in combination with nanorod-like CuO electrodes in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells. A particularly high efficiency of 0.191% was observed with a photosensitizer containing a carboxyethynyl anchor (see picture; R is a branched alkyl group)The authors thank the German Science Council (DFG) for the financial support in the framework of the Cluster of Engineering of Advanced Materials (EAM), the MINECO Spain (CTQ2014- 52869/BQU), the Comunidad de Madrid Spain (FOTOCARBON, S2013/MIT-2841), and the European Union within the FP7-ENERGY-2012-1 nr. 309194-2, GLOBALSO