Photoelectrochemical Cells Utilizing Tunable Corroles

Organic dyes with their wide range of molecular structures and spectroscopic features show great promise for solar energy applications. Corroles, structural analogues to porphyrins, are highly fluorescent molecules with tunable properties. We have synthesized a series of structurally similar corroles chelating gallium and phosphorus, along with a β-chlorinated phosphorus corrole, and determined their photophysical and electrochemical properties. The electrochemical potentials to oxidize the corroles range from 0.78 V vs NHE for the gallium corrole to 1.42 V for the β-octachlorinated phosphorus corrole. We are interested in developing photosensitizers for water oxidation on a metal oxide-based photoanode, so the corroles were modified to contain a meso-phenyl-COOH substituent for binding to metal oxide surfaces. The ability of these corrole dyes to act as photosensitizers was assessed by comparing the corroles in a model dye sensitized solar cell design. Transient absorption spectroscopy was utilized to an...