Impact of π-conjugation configurations on the photovoltaic performance of the quinoxaline-based organic dyes

Abstract Three novel quinoxaline-based donor-π-acceptor type organic dyes were synthesized and explored as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The impacts of various π-conjugation configurations which contain different quinoxaline derivatives on the absorption properties, electrochemical properties and photovoltaic performances, as well as theoretical calculations have been investigated systematically. The photovoltaic performances of these dyes were found to be highly relevant to the π-conjugated configurations. In particular, the DSSC based on the dye with 2,3-dioctylquinoxaline as the spacer exhibited the highest efficiency of 8.20% with a short-circuit photocurrent densit…