Sensitization of Nanocrystalline Metal Oxides with a Phosphonate-Functionalized Perylene Diimide for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation with a CoOx Catalyst

A planar organic thin film composed of a perylene diimide dye (N,N′-bis(phosphonomethyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenediimide, PMPDI) with photoelectrochemically deposited cobalt oxide (CoOx) catalyst was previously shown to photoelectrochemically oxidize water (DOI: 10.1021/am405598w). Herein, the same PMPDI dye is studied for the sensitization of different nanostructured metal oxide (nano-MOx) films in a dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell architecture. Dye adsorption kinetics and saturation decreases in the order TiO2 > SnO2 ≫ WO3. Despite highest initial dye loading on TiO2 films, photocurrent with hydroquinone (H2Q) sacrificial reductant in pH 7 aqueous solution is much higher on SnO2 films, likely due to a higher driving force for charge injection into the more positive conduction band energy of SnO2. Dyeing conditions and SnO2 film thickness were subsequently optimized to achieve light-harvesting efficiency >99% at the λmax of the dye, and absorbed photon-to-current efficiency of 13% with H2Q, a 2-fold im...