Electronic and molecular structures of organic dye/TiO2 interfaces for solar cell applications: a core level photoelectron spectroscopy study

The electronic and molecular properties of three organic dye molecules with the general structure donor-linker-anchor have been investigated using core level photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). The molecules contain a diphenylaniline donor unit, a thiophene linker unit, and cyanoacrylic acid or rhodanine-3-acetic acid anchor units. They have been investigated both in the form of a multilayer and adsorbed onto nanoporous TiO2 and the experimental results were also compared with DFT calculations. The changes at the dye-sensitized TiO2 surface due to the modification of either the donor unit or the anchor unit was investigated and the results showed important differences in coverage as well as in electronic and molecular surface properties. By measuring the core level binding energies, the sub-molecular properties were characterized and the result showed that the adsorption to the TiO2 influences the energy levels of the sub-molecular units differently.