Disentangling the Physical Processes Responsible for the Kinetic Complexity in Interfacial Electron Transfer of Excited Ru(II) Polypyridyl Dyes on TiO2

Interfacial electron transfer at titanium dioxide (TiO2) is investigated for a series of surface bound ruthenium-polypyridyl dyes whose metal-to-ligand charge-transfer state (MLCT) energetics are tuned through chemical modification. The 12 complexes are of the form RuII(bpy-A)(L)22+, where bpy-A is a bipyridine ligand functionalized with phosphonate groups for surface attachment to TiO2. Functionalization of ancillary bipyridine ligands (L) enables the potential of the excited state RuIII/* couple, E+/*, in 0.1 M perchloric acid (HClO4(aq)) to be tuned from −0.69 to −1.03 V vs NHE. Each dye is excited by a 200 fs pulse of light in the visible region of the spectrum and probed with a time-delayed supercontiuum pulse (350–800 nm). Decay of the MLCT excited-state absorption at 376 nm is observed without loss of the ground-state bleach, which is a clear signature of electron injection and formation of the oxidized dye. The dye-dependent decays are biphasic with time constants in the 3–30 and 30–500 ps range. ...