Probing Electric Field Effect on Covalent Interactions at a Molecule–Semiconductor Interface

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 138; no. 5; pp. 1536 - 1542
• Main Authors: Sevinc, Papatya C, Dhital, Bharat, Govind Rao, Vishal, Wang, Yuanmin, Lu, H. Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 10.02.2016
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b10253

Fundamental understanding of the energetic coupling properties of a molecule–semiconductor interface is of great importance. The changes in molecular conformations and vibrational modes can have significant impact on the interfacial charge transfer reactions. Here, we have probed the change in the interface properties of alizarin–TiO2 system as a result of the externally applied electric field using single-hot spot microscopic surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SMSERS) and provided a theoretical understanding of our experimental results by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The perturbation, caused by the external potential, has been observed as a shift and splitting of the 648 cm–1 peak, typical indicator of the strong coupling between alizarin and TiO2, at SMSERS. On the basis of our experimental results and DFT calculations, we suggest that electric field has significant effects on vibrational coupling at the molecule–TiO2 interface. The presence of perturbed alizarin–TiO2 coupling under interfacial electric potential may lead to changes in the interfacial electron transfer dynamics. Additionally, heterogeneously distributed dye molecules at the interface on nanometer length scale and different chromophore-semiconductor binding interactions under charge accumulation associated interfacial electric field changes create intrinsically inhomogeneous interfacial ET dynamics associated with both static and dynamic disorders.