Photoelectrochemical properties of porphyrin dyes with a molecular dipole in the linker.

The electronic properties of three porphyrin-bridge-anchor photosensitizers are reported with (1a, 1e, 3a and 3e) or without (2a and 2e) an intramolecular dipole in the bridge. The presence and orientation of the bridge dipole is hypothesized to influence the photovoltaic properties due to variations in the intrinsic dipole at the semiconductor-molecule interface. Electrochemical studies of the porphyrin-bridge-anchor dyes self-assembled on mesoporous nanoparticle ZrO2 films, show that the presence or direction of the bridge dipole does not have an observable effect on the electronic properties of the porphyrin ring. Subsequent photovoltaic measurements of nanostructured TiO2 semiconductor films in dye sensitized solar cells show a reduced photocurrent for photosensitizers 1a and 3a containing a bridge dipole. However, cooperative increased binding of the 1a + 3a co-sensitized device demonstrates that dye packing overrides any differences due to the presence of the small internal dipole.

Synthesis of Zinc Tetraphenylporphyrin Rigid Rods with a Built-In Dipole.

Three Zn(II) tetraphenylporphyrins (ZnTPP) were synthesized to study the influence of a molecular dipole on the energy level alignment of a chromophore bound to a metal oxide semiconductor: ZnTPP-PE(DA)-IpaOMe (1), ZnTPP-PE-IpaOMe (2), and ZnTPP-PE(AD)-IpaOMe (3). Each contained a rigid-rod linker made of a p-phenylene ethynylene (PE) moiety terminated with the methyl ester of an isophthalic acid unit (Ipa). Porphyrins 1 and 3 contained an intramolecular dipole in the central phenyl ring, which was built by introducing electron donor (D, NMe2) and acceptor (A, NO2) substituents in para position to each other. In 1 and 3, the relative position of the D and A substituents, and therefore the dipole direction, was reversed. Porphyrin 2, without substituents in the linker, was synthesized for a comparison. The structures of precursors to 1 and 3 and the structure of 1 were determined by single crystal X-ray analysis. Solution UV-vis and steady-state fluorescence spectra of 1-3 were identical to each other and exhibited the spectral features typical of the ZnTPP chromophore and their electrochemical properties were also very similar. Methyl esters 1-3 were hydrolyzed to the corresponding carboxylic acids for binding to metal oxide semiconductors.