Babu, D.D.Elsherbiny, D.Cheema, H.El-Shafei, A.Adhikari, A.V.2020-03-312020-03-312016Dyes and Pigments, 2016, Vol.132, , pp.316-328https://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/11923Herein, we report the molecular design, synthesis and photovoltaic performance studies of three new organic co-sensitizers, N1-3 carrying indole and thiophene units linked to different acceptors/anchoring groups, as co-adsorbents for dye sensitized solar cells. We present the role of anchoring/acceptor units on co-sensitization properties N1-3. Their photo-physical and electrochemical results along with molecular geometry, obtained from Density Functional Theory are utilized to rationalize the influence of co-sensitizer structures on photovoltaic properties for DSSCs. We have shown that, the co-sensitization effect is profoundly dependent upon the anchoring/acceptor unit in the co-adsorbents. Among them, N3 containing 4-aminobenzoic acid shows promising co-sensitization results and exhibits an enhanced efficiency of 9.26%, when co-sensitized with a ruthenium dye, HD-14. Further, the study highlights the importance of molecular matching between the sensitizer and co-sensitizer in enhancing the efficiency. Furthermore, vertical electronic excitations are calculated using time dependent density functional theory studies. 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Article