Three p-carboxyphenyl groups possessing zinc porphyrins: efficient, stable, and cost-effective sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells.

Zinc porphyrins possessing three p-carboxyphenyl anchoring groups with various substituents were prepared by a facile three-step route in good yields. Zn1NH3A with electron donating and anti-aggregation meso substituents has achieved the highest efficiency of 6.10%. These porphyrins with three p-carboxyphenyl groups are more stable toward photo-bleaching than their single anchoring group analogs.