Département de chimie moléculaire

A facile surface amide-coupling method was examined to attach dye and catalyst mols. to silatrane-decorated NiO electrodes. Using this method, electrodes with a push-pull dye were assembled and characterized by photoelectrochem. and transient absorption spectroscopy. The dye-sensitized electrodes exhibited hole injection into NiO and good photoelectrochem. stability in water, highlighting the stability of the silatrane anchoring group and the amide linkage. The amide-coupling protocol was further applied to electrodes that contain a mol. proton reduction catalyst for use in photocathode architectures. Evidence for catalyst reduction was observed during photoelectrochem. measurements and via femtosecond-transient absorption spectroscopy demonstrating the possibility for application in photocathodes.