Labeling co-sensitizer dye for XPS quantification in coadsorption dye-sensitized solar cells

Honda, Mitsunori   ; Yanagida, Masatoshi*; Han, L.*; Miyano, Kenjiro*

Quantifying the coadsorption of dye molecules on nanoporous TiO is difficult because of the complex adsorption structure between the dye and TiO surface. D131 dye absorbs strongly in the ultraviolet region and is a common co-sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells. In this study, we showed that Cl-terminated D131 dye coadsorbed with a Ru complex on nanoporous TiO can be used as a labeling compound to quantify coadsorption systems by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Cl-terminated D131 alone and Cl-terminated D131 and N719 coadsorbed on nanoporous TiO were measured with XPS. The Cl atoms were quantified by the peak intensity ratio of the Cl 1s and Ti 2p peaks. In the Cl-terminated D131 + N719 coadsorption system, the amount of Cl-terminated D131 dye adsorbed decreased by about 44% for the 1:1 mixture. Our technique could also be used to quantify other dyes in co-sensitizer systems, such as black dye and N3 dye.