TiO2 sensitized with an oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) carboxylic acid : a new model compound for a hybrid solar cell

The interaction of an acid-functionalized oligo(p-phenylene vinylene) (OPV3-COOH) with nanocryst. TiO2 was studied as a model for semiconducting polymer-inorg. material hybrid solar cells. Langmuir adsorption studies show that the monolayer coverage of OPV3-COOH on nc-TiO2 results in 35% filling of the nanopores. Photoluminescence quenching and near steady-state photoinduced absorption spectroscopy demonstrate that an efficient forward photoinduced electron transfer occurs from OPV3-COOH to TiO2. Photovoltaic cells based on OPV3-COOH/nc-TiO2, and a liq. electrolyte as a medium for hole transport, provide an incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency of 55%, comparable to the values obtained with the best Ru dyes. The results demonstrate that the majority of the photogenerated charges can be collected. [on SciFinder (R)