LAUSR

Herein, we prepared two new zinc porphyrin dyes (JA4 and JA5) containing different anchoring groups and applied them in dye-sensitized solar cells. The hydrazide unit was used as an anchoring group for a DSSC, and the device based on the JA5 containing hydrazide anchor also shows a high PCE of 5.49% with a Jsc of 11.57 mA cm−2 and a Voc of 737 mV. COOH is the most common anchor, but it is prone to dissociate from the TiO2 surface, especially under alkaline conditions. Interestingly, the hydrazide anchor shows better water-stability under various aqueous conditions compared with the COOH anchor, including acidic, neutral and alkaline conditions. In addition, a hydrazide unit is very easy to synthesise, thus, hydrazide can be a promising anchoring group for DSSCs.