Sensitisation of semiconducting electrodes with ruthenium-based dyes
- 1 January 1980
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Faraday Discussions of the Chemical Society
- Vol. 70, 285-298
- https://doi.org/10.1039/dc9807000285
Abstract
Practical photoelectrolysis of water by sunlight requires the development of suitable semiconductor electrodes. One approach is the photosensitisation of wide-bandgap oxide semiconductors by the chemical attachment of a suitable dye to the surface. We report on the photosensitisation of n-TiO2, n-SrTiO3 and n-SnO2 with chemically attached Ru(bipy)2(bpca) in which the 2,2′-bipyridine-4,4′ dicarboxylic acid (bpca) is chemically attached to the semiconductor surface by two ester linkages. Kinetic analysis reveals a surprisingly low quantum efficiency (ηe≈ 0.25%) for electron injection from the photoexcited dye into the semiconductor and a low rate constant for reoxidation of the dye. A suggestion is made how the dye molecule might be designed to improve the situation radically. Some deterioration in performance was observed after illumination of the sensitised electrode for many hours.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: