Issue 25, 2020

In situ Raman study of the photoinduced behavior of dye molecules on TiO2(hkl) single crystal surfaces

Abstract

In dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the TiO2/dye interface significantly affects photovoltaic performance. However, the adsorption and photoinduced behavior of dye molecules on the TiO2 substrate remains unclear. Herein, shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) was used to study the adsorption and photoinduced behavior of dye (N719) molecules on different TiO2(hkl) surfaces. On TiO2(001) and TiO2(110) surfaces, the in situ SHINERS and mass spectrometry results indicate S[double bond, length as m-dash]C bond cleavage in the anchoring groups of adsorbed N719, whereas negligible bond cleavage occurs on the TiO2(111) surface. Furthermore, DFT calculations show the stability of the S[double bond, length as m-dash]C anchoring group on three TiO2(hkl) surfaces in the order TiO2(001) < TiO2(110) < TiO2(111), which correlated well with the observed photocatalytic activities. This work reveals the photoactivity of different TiO2(hkl) surface structures and can help with the rational design of DSSCs. Thus, this strategy can be applied to real-time probing of photoinduced processes on semiconductor single crystal surfaces.

Graphical abstract: In situ Raman study of the photoinduced behavior of dye molecules on TiO2(hkl) single crystal surfaces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
31 jan 2020
Accepted
01 apr 2020
First published
17 apr 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 6431-6435

In situ Raman study of the photoinduced behavior of dye molecules on TiO2(hkl) single crystal surfaces

S. Zhang, J. Lin, R. Lin, P. M. Radjenovic, W. Yang, J. Xu, J. Dong, Z. Yang, W. Hang, Z. Tian and J. Li, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 6431 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC00588F

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