we successfully utilized 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole as an electron acceptor to develop highly efficient organic dyes.27 Herein we report a novel molecular design of a donor–acceptor porphyrin dye. The introduction of an electron acceptor as a π-conjugated linker in between the anchoring group and the porphyrin chromophore led to a broadening of the absorption to partially fill the valley between the Soret and Q-bands. With this new strategy, we observed 12.75 % efficiency with a single porphyrin dye containing 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) as an electron acceptor π-conjugated with benzoic acid as an anchoring group. We also investigated the significance of benzoic acid as an anchoring group rather than the corresponding carboxylic acid without a phenyl spacer, particularly, when BTD is used as an electron acceptor, for obtaining higher power-conversion efficiencies in the dye-sensitized solar cells.