Three newly synthesized sensitizers including [Ru(Phen-Hep)(dcbpy)2]: Phen-Hep = diheptyl-1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-diimine, dcbpy = 2,2′-bipyridine-4,4′-dicarboxylic, [Ru(Phen-Hep)2(dcbpy)] and [Ru(Phen-Hep) (dcbpy)(NCS)2], which named RuHDA1, RuHDA2 and RuHDA3, respectively, were molecularly designed, synthesized and characterized for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The aim of this work was to systematically investigate the influence of tuning of an ancillary and anchoring ligand on the cell performance and the charge carrier dynamics of the excited states of sensitizers. In particular, the kinetic of electron transfer in DSSCs based on newly synthesized complexes were found from transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) which indicated that the lifetime of regeneration of RuHDA3 is larger than other two complexes. Also DFT and TD-DFT were done on theses complexes to investigate electron transfer properties, which the results showed the good agreement with experimental results.
