Spirally configured cis-stilbene/fluorene hybrids as bipolar, organic sensitizers for solar cell applicationsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental procedures, characterization and NMR spectra for all compounds. CCDC 868581 and 871304. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c2cc17079e

Hybrids based on a dibenzosuberene core bearing a spiro-fluorene junction at the C-5 position and with amino donor and β-thiophenyl-α-cyanoacrylic acid acceptor groups at C-3 and C-7, respectively, serve as new organic sensitizer materials for solar cell applications. Solar cell devices based on these materials show a conversion efficiency ( η ) of up to 6.1% ( V oc = 697 mV, J sc = 12.2 mA cm −2 , FF = 0.72) under AM 1.5 G conditions. The best IPCE values exceed 75% within the 450-550 nm absorption range. Title bipolar hybrids serve as new sensitizer materials for solar cell applications with improved performance by 58-62% as compared with the unconfined system and show a conversion efficiency of up to 6.1% and the best IPCE values exceed 75% within 450-550 nm range.