Mohamed R. Elmorsy, Samar M. Mohammed, Basant Mohamed, Ahmed H. Moustafa, Safa A. Badawy
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are among the most promising photovoltaic technologies for both outdoor and indoor energy harvesting due to their low cost and spectral versatility. In this work, a new series of organic donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) sensitizers (BAM-1-BAM-4) featuring a naphthalene donor and a phenyl-pyrazole π-bridge were designed to explore how structural variations in electron-withdrawing acceptors influence light absorption, charge transfer, and device efficiency. The dyes were systematically investigated using UV-Vis spectroscopy, electrochemical analysis, and density functional theory calculations, and were applied individually and jointly with the benchmark Black dye in single and parallel tandem DSSCs (PT-DSSCs). BAM-3 and BAM-4 exhibited strong intramolecular charge transfer, red-shifted absorption, and efficient electron injection, achieving power conversion efficiencies of 9.85% and 8.89%, respectively, when co-sensitized with Black dye. The optimized PT-DSSC employing BAM-3 + BAM-4 as the bottom photoanode and Black dye as the top achieved a remarkable 12.13% efficiency under AM 1.5G and 25.85% under 1000 lx indoor illumination, maintaining 95% stability after 300 h of continuous operation. These results demonstrate that molecular engineering of D-π-A dyes combined with tandem co-sensitization provides an effective pathway to achieve high-efficiency, stable DSSCs suitable for both solar and ambient-light applications.