Picolinic acid as an efficient tridentate anchoring group adsorbing at Lewis acid sites and Bronsted acid sites of the TiO2 surface in dye-sensitized solar cells

We developed a novel efficient tridentate anchoring group which can anchor dyes onto the TiO2 surface via synchronously choosing Lewis acid sites and Bronsted acid sites of TiO2. For the purpose of comparing the traditional carboxylate anchoring group to picolinic acid, two new D-pi-A porphyrin dyes (JA1 and JA2) differing only in anchoring groups have been synthesized and applied in dye-sensitized solar cells. Picolinic acid as an anchoring group in the dye JA2 not only extended the scope of the spectral response, but also improved the charge transport properties and enhanced the electron injection efficiency. The PCE of the JA1 based-device (carboxylate as the anchoring group) was 5.76%. The PCE of the JA2 based-device was 7.20%, which increased by 25% compared with JA1. The dye TTR2 was used as a cosensitizer; it would not just make up for the poor absorption of porphyrin dyes in the 470-550 nm range, but also would suppress the main dye aggregation and reduce the charge recombination rate. We found that the picolinic acid anchor was more suitable for the cosensitization system than the carboxylate anchor, for there was almost no competitive adsorption between JA2 and TTR2. The JA2 + TTR2 based-device showed the highest PCE of 8.98% under AM 1.5 G irradiation.