Kinetics of photoinduced electron transfer in a photoelectrochemical cell consisting of thiazine dyes and Triton X-100 surfactant

Abstract Systems consisting of thiazine dyes in an aqueous solution of Triton X-100 generate photovoltage when studied in a photoelectrochemical cell arrangement. The growth and decay of the photovoltage follow functional forms related to the relaxation times. The rate constants of the forward light reaction and backward dark reaction have been calculated using the relaxation times. A possible mechanism of photovoltage generation involves the photoinduced electron transfer from Triton X-100 surfactant to the thiazine dye through a charge transfer (CT) interaction. A good correlation between the photovoltage, determined by photoelectrochemical studies, and the equilibrium constant, determined by kinetic and spectral studies, confirms this mechanism.