Porphyrin and Phthalocyanines-Based Solar Cells: Fundamental Mechanisms and Recent Advances

A remarkable source of renewable energy is the Dye- sensitized solar cells (DSCs). However, the major limitation of power conversion efficiency (PCE) of devices is their inability to produce electricity using photons from the near infrared (NIR) spectral region. Some Metal-free organic sensitizers make use of strong electron donating or withdrawing moieties to tune the optical band gap to allow the absorption of lower energy wavelengths in charge transfer systems while porphyrins and phthalocyanines compounds are used to shift the Soret and Q bands toward lower energy absorption. Various molecules are been synthesized to improve and increase the power conversion efficiency of the compounds. This study discusses the structure of these compounds, working principles and their derivatives as recent advances been carried out to improve the power efficiencies of the compounds.