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Distance Dependent Electron Transfer at TiO2 Interfaces Sensitized with Phenylene Ethynylene Bridged RuII–Isothiocyanate Compounds
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posted on 2013-06-05, 00:00 authored by Patrik
G. Johansson, Andrew Kopecky, Elena Galoppini, Gerald J. MeyerExcess electrons
present in semiconductor nanocrystallites generate
a significant electric field, yet the role this field plays in molecular
charge transfer processes remains poorly understood. Three ruthenium
bipyridyl cis-Ru(bpy)(LL)(NCS)2 compounds,
where LL is a 4-substituted bpy, with zero, one, or two phenylene
ethynylene bridge units, were anchored to mesoporous nanocrystalline
TiO2 thin films to specifically quantify interfacial charge
transfer with chromophores designed to be set at variable distances
from the surface. Injection of electrons into TiO2 resulted
in a blue shift of the metal-to-ligand charge transfer absorption
consistent with an underlying Stark effect. The electroabsorption
data were used to quantify the electric field experienced by the compounds
that decreased from 0.85 to 0.22 MV/cm as the number of OPE spacers
increased from 0 to 2. Charge recombination on the 10–8–10–5 s time scale correlated with the magnitude
of the electric field with an apparent attenuation factor β
= 0.12 Å–1. Slow components to charge recombination
observed on the 10–4–10–1 s time scale that were unaffected by temperature, irradiance, or
the bridge units present on the molecular sensitizer were attributed
to electron tunneling between TiO2 acceptor states. The
photocurrent efficiencies of solar cells based on these compounds
decreased markedly when the bridge units were present on the sensitizer.
Iodine was found to form adducts with all three compounds, K = 1.8 ± 0.2 × 104 M–1, but only significantly lowered the excited state injection yield
for those that possessed the bridge units.