Effect of Push-Pull Ruthenium Complex Adsorption Conformation on the Performance of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

A new series of tris-(bipyridyl)ruthenium-like complexes based on the 4-tripheylamine-2,2’:6’,2’’-terpyridine (TPA) push-pull ligand was prepared by incorporation of 4-carboxypyridine (cpy), 4,4’-dicarboxi-2,2’-bipyridine (dcbpy) and 4-carboxyterpyridine ligands (ctpy) ligands, in order to adsorb them on TiO2 in different anchoring conformations. The electron photoinjection and electron recombination processes of the respective dye-sensitized solar cells were greatly influenced by the molecular structure, which defined the surface concentration and surface charge on TiO2, such that...