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Highly efficient nanocrystalline photovoltaic devices, based on Ru and Os sensitisers have been reported previously (1). The most efficient and stable sensitisers known at present are carboxylated Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes.

Now, researchers from Switzerland (2) have developed a series of new Ru(II) complexes with 2,6-bis(l-methyl-benzirnidazol-2-yl)pyridine(bmipy), and tested them by structural variations of NCS and 4,4′-dcbpy in prototype K[Ru(II)(bmipy)(4,4′-dcbpy)(NCS)] (4,4′-dcbpy = 2,2′-bipyrdine-4,4′-dicarboxylate), for their performance as charge transfer sensitisers for nanocrystalline TiO₂. A phosphonate group, substituted for carboxyl, was a useful alternative as an anchoring unit, as the Ru complex did not desorb on exposure to water.