Synthesis of a novel family of porphyrin with triphenylamine donor groups to be applied in dye sensitized solar cells

The solar cells of third generation, which can be classified in hybrids and organics, are the target of uncountable studies and developments along the last few years. These cells present low fabrication cost, flexibility, lightness, and stability. After considerable time in which DSCs based on Ru(II) polypyridyl sensitizers were clearly the most efficient, DSCs based on fully organic sensitizers have recently made huge strides forward in development.   Porphyrins offer several distinct advantages over Ru(II)polypyridyl sensitizers due to their high molar extinction coefficients, sharp absorption bands and high photostability and recent examples of DSC devices based on D-π-A porphyrins show >10% efficiency. However, their properties in DSCs still need to be fully investigated and molecular structure-device function rules need to be outlined to fully understand device performance for devices based on these dyes. In this work we will describe two new Zinc–porphyrin sensitizers, bearing triphenylamine. The synthesis, characterizatoion and the application in dye sensitized solar cells employing iodide/tri-iodide and cobalt based electrolytes will be presented.