| Abstract
| - The ultrafast injection dynamics, early recombination dynamics, and spectral signatures of four systematically varied dye-metal oxide hybrid systems were investigated using transient absorption spectroscopy techniques. First, photoinduced electron transfer from two different perylene derivatives into zinc oxide (ZnO) colloidal films is reported. Here, the electronic coupling of the perylene chromophore 2,5-Di-tert-butyl-perylene-9-yl-propionic acid (1) to the ZnO colloids was weaker than the electronic coupling of the chromophore 2,5-Di-tert-butyl-perylene-9-yl-acrylic acid (2). Second, the photoinduced electron transfer of the same two molecules attached to TiO2 colloids was measured and compared to the results for the ZnO colloids using the same techniques. The temporal traces at both the excited-state and the cationic state of the chromophores attached to the semiconductor surfaces were measured simultaneously and showed very good agreement, which indicated a direct injection into the semiconductor. The overall injection times for the ZnO samples was as short as 190 fs, which suggested a strong electronic coupling element for these systems. This injection time is short compared to reports on similar ZnO hybrid systems, but it is still longer than the injection times reported for the TiO2 hybrid systems. The transient absorption spectra of molecule 2 attached to TiO2 showed a large negative signal at 530-550 nm, which indicated the presence of a direct charge transfer state contribution in this system.
|