Development of thiocyanate-free, charge-neutral Ru(ii) sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cellsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Instrument information and experimental procedure. See DOI: 10.1039/c002220a

A new series of neutral, thiocyanate-free Ru( ii ) sensitizers ( TFRS-1-3 ), which are assembled using both 4,4′-carboxy-2,2′-bypyridine and 2-pyridyl pyrazolate ancillaries, exhibit a light-harvesting capability up to 700 nm and superior DSSC performance in conversion efficiency ( η = 9.54% for TFRS-2 ). Thiocyanate-free Ru( ii ) sensitizers were synthesized using both 4,4′-carboxy-2,2′-bypyridine and functionalized 2-pyridyl pyrazolate ancillaries, giving superior DSSC performance in solar conversion efficiency up to η = 9.54%.