Thieno[2,3-b]indole-based organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells: Effect of π-linker on the performance of isolated dye and interface between dyes and TiO2

A series of novel D-π-A type organic dyes with different π-linker are theoretically designed and investigated for their potential applications in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We mainly focused on the influence of the extension of π-linker on the overall efficiency. The discussions are classified into two aspects: one is the isolated dyes and the other is the dye-TiO2 system. The calculated results indicate that the isolated dyes THI-2T-C,...