Synthesis of near-infrared absorbing and fluorescing thiophene-fused BODIPY dyes with strong electron-donating groups and their application in dye-sensitised solar cells

Abstract

Thiophene-fused BODIPY dyes with two diethylaminophenyl groups as strong donors demonstrated near-infrared (NIR) absorption (λ_max: 783–812 nm, ε: 119 500–145 900) and fluorescence (F_max: 862–916 nm, Φ_f: 0.02–0.12) in dichloromethane. When applied to dye-sensitised solar cells, these dyes exhibited a panchromatic incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) response from 400 to 850 nm, with the onset of the IPCE response at ∼950 nm.