Exciton diffusion and interfacial charge separation in meso-tetraphenylporphyrin/TiO2 bilayers: effect of ethyl substituents

The photoinduced charge separation efficiency in porphyrin/TiO2 bilayers has been determined using the time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) technique. Porphyrins investigated are unsubstituted meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) and meso-tetra(4-ethylphenyl)porphyrin (TEPP). TEPP/TiO2 bilayers exhibit a charge separation efficiency per incident photon at the Soret band maximum of 6.2%, which is considerably higher than the efficiency of 1.2% found for TPP/TiO2 bilayers. Exciton diffusion lengths of 7 A for TPP and 75 A for TEPP are obtained from fitting a model for the charge separation efficiency to the experimental data. Optical measurements on the porphyrin derivatives on quartz yield a 20 times higher fluorescence quantum yield and a 7 times higher fluorescence rate constant for TEPP layers as compared to TPP layers. The exciton lifetime of 800 ps found for TEPP layers is considerably longer than the lifetime of 260 ps in TPP layers. The exciton diffusion coefficients, determined from the exciton diffusion length and the exciton lifetime, are found to be 2.10(-9) m(2)/s for TPP and 7.10(-8) m(2)/s for TEPP. The difference is discussed in terms of the presence of face-to-face dimers or larger aggregates in TPP layers.