Effect of anchoring groups on N-annulated perylene-based sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells and photocatalytic H 2 evolution

In this work, two new D-A-π-A perylene dyes featuring with cyanoacrylic acid and 2-(1,1-dicyanomethylene) rhodamine (DCRD) as the electron acceptor/anchoring group, respectively, in combination with a N-annulated perylene electron donor and a quinoxaline auxiliary acceptor were investigated for application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) and dye-sensitized photocatalytic hydrogen production. The results showed that the sensitizer with cyanoacrylic acid (YFT-1) based DSCs showed a higher conversion efficiency of 7.58% under AM1.5 solar conditions. However, it was interesting that the sensitizer with DCRD (YFT-2) sensitized Pt/TiO2 photocatalysts displayed a higher rate of H2 evolution of 83.5 μmol h−1 under visible-light irradiation with wavelength between 420 nm and 780 nm. This may be ascribed to less interface charge recombination and more effective interfacial electron transfer between photo-excited YFT-2 and TiO2 in aqueous solution. This study demonstrates that YFT-2 containing DCRD anchoring group is a promising candidate to achieve high and stable activity of H2 production.