Visible-light-driven, tunable, photoelectrochemical performance of a series of metal-chelate, dye-organized, crystalline, CdS nanoclusters

Abstract

CdS nanoclusters of four different sizes were integrated with ruthenium-complex dyes. The cluster-dye crystalline composites, [Cd 4(SPh)10][Ru(bpy)3], [Cd8S(SPh) 16][Ru(bpy)3], [Cd8S(SPh)13· Cl·(CH3OCS2)2][Ru(phen)3], [Cd17S4(SPh)28][Ru(bpy)3], and [Cd32S14(SPh)40][Ru(phen)3] 2 (phen=1,10-phenanthroline and bpy=bipyridine), show intense absorption in the visible-light region. They also exhibit size-dependent photocurrent responses under the illumination of visible light. The photocurrent increases with increased cluster size. The dyes also have significant influence on the photocurrent generation of the composite. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.