Visible-Light-Driven Water Oxidation on a Photoanode by Supramolecular Assembly of Photosensitizer and Catalyst.

Abstract

A ruthenium water oxidation catalyst (WOC) bearing hydrophobic ligands was incorporated on the surface of a dye-sensitized nanostructured TiO2 film by formation of a host-guest adduct with the dye. This provides a new strategy for constructing photocatalytically active electrodes for water oxidation. The resultant photoanode exhibits a photocurrent of 800 μA cm-2 under visible-light illumination (λ>400 nm, 300 mW cm-2 ) and 240 μA cm-2 under simulated sunlight illumination (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm-2 ) with an applied bias of 0.2 V vs. NHE in neutral phosphate buffer.