Contribution in an anthology

Appeared in: Electrochemistry of N4 Macrocyclic Metal Complexes, Volume 1: Energy

Editor list: Zagal, J.H.; Bedioui, F.

Publication year: 2016

ISBN: 978-3-319-31170-8

eISBN: 978-3-319-31172-2

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31172-2_7

Edition: 2nd edition

Abstract: 

Phthalocyanine molecules lend themselves in a very favorable way to drive light-induced charge transfer reactions because of their intense absorption in the visible range, a rather high chemical stability and the ease at which their redox potential can be tuned by means of suitable substituents. A number of unsubstituted and substituted phthalocyanines can be directly used to prepare thin films on conducting substrates by means of different film-forming techniques, e.g., by physical vapor deposition or from solutions. Such films in general show semiconducting characteristics in a number of experiments. Therefore, such films can be used as photoactive electrodes in photoelectrochemical cells. Because of a high probability of nonradiative decay of the excited states in solid phthalocyanines and because of a high concentration of defect states in contacts with electrolytes, however, the efficiency is generally low. Considerably higher efficiencies are obtained if phthalocyanines are molecularly dispersed and bound to a wide-bandgap n-conducting semiconductor like TiO₂ or ZnO. Carboxylated or sulfonated phthalocyanines are well suited for this purpose.

Harvard Citation style: Schlettwein, D. (2016) Photoelectrochemical Reactions at Phthalocyanine Electrodes, in Zagal, J. and Bedioui, F. (eds.) Electrochemistry of N4 Macrocyclic Metal Complexes, Volume 1: Energy. 2nd edition. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31172-2_7

APA Citation style: Schlettwein, D. (2016). Photoelectrochemical Reactions at Phthalocyanine Electrodes. In Zagal, J., & Bedioui, F. (Eds.), Electrochemistry of N4 Macrocyclic Metal Complexes, Volume 1: Energy (2nd edition). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31172-2_7