Influence of pyridine ligand nature and the corresponding ruthenium(ii) dye molecular structure on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cellsThis paper was published as part of the themed issue of contributions from the 5th European Meeting on Solar Chemistry and Photocatalysis: Environmental Applications held in Palermo, Italy, October 2008.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: General procedures and materials, synthesis of the sensitizers, TiO2electrode preparation and solar cell fabrication, HOMO–LUMO and absorption threshold energies of Ru2+complexes (Table S1), Raman spectra for complexes 6and 7and the corresponding dye-sensitized titania films (Fig. S1). See DOI: 10.1039/b817470a

cis-[Ru(bpy)2(Ln)]Cl2(n = 1, L1= 4-carboxy-2-(2′-pyridyl)quinoline (2); n = 2, L2= 2,2′-pyridine-4,4′-dicarboxylic acid (4)); and cis-[Ru(bpy)2(L′)2)]Cl2(L′ = 4-pyridinecarboxylic acid (6)) complexes, with surface anchoring groups, are prepared from the reaction of cis-[Ru(bpy)2Cl2] (1) with the appropriate ligand (L1, L2, L′). Ion exchange in aqueous solution with NH4PF6gives the corresponding bis(hexafluorophosphate) derivatives cis-[Ru(bpy)2(L1)](PF6)2(3), cis-[Ru(bpy)2(L2)](PF6)2(5) and cis-[Ru(bpy)2(L′)2](PF6)2(7), respectively. The photo-electrochemical properties of the dyes (2–7) are investigated and the efficiency of the corresponding dye sensitized solar cells is compared to a N719 sensitized device, under similar fabrication and testing conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]