A series of new dipolar organic dyes containing 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene has been synthesized as sensitizers for the application in dye-sensitized solar cells. These new materials containing less rigid pi-linker as sensitizers exhibit good performance with conversion efficiencies ranging from 1.58% to 6.21% reaching 11 similar to 83% of the ruthenium dye N719-based cell under the same condition.