Cathodic Electrodeposition of TiO2 Thin Films for Dye-Sensitized Photoelectrochemical Applications

Abstract A convenient – and quick to realize – approach for cathodic electrodeposition of TiO2 films is suggested. Scanning electron microscopic examination of the resultant films reveals the formation of mesoporous TiO2. Since dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical investigations on cathodically electrodeposited TiO2 films are hitherto unreported, we performed such investigations by sensitizing our mesoporous TiO2 films with cis-bis(4,4′-dicarboxy-2,2′-bipyridine)bis(thiocyanato)ruthenium(II). The preliminary studies exhibit incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) above 35% in the first attempt.