Significant effects of the distance between the cyanine dye skeleton and the semiconductor surface on the photoelectrochemical properties of dye-sensitized porous semiconductor electrodes

Abstract

The incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of a porous TiO₂ electrode sensitized by cyanine dyes increased with decreasing distance between the skeleton of the dye and the TiO₂ surface. The photocurrent of oxide semiconductor electrodes sensitized by a cyanine dye increased with the positive shift of the conduction band potential of the oxide semiconductor in the following order: Nb₂O₅<TiO₂<ZnO<SnO₂. The SnO₂ semiconductor cell showed the best light-to-electric conversion efficiency among the four semiconductors.