Photocurrent responsive properties of a series of charge-transfer materials with nano-sized CdS/Se clusters and ruthenium complex dyes

• Large size cadmium chalcogenido clusters with ruthenium complex cations are prepared.
• Cation–anion charge-transfer property is found for these chalcogenido materials.
• The intensity of photocurrent is related to the cluster size and the chalcogenido elements of the clusters.

Large cadmium chalcogenido clusters C2 (Cd32) and C1 (Cd17) CdQ (Q = S, Se) with photoactive dye cations [Ru(Phen/Bpy)3]2+ are prepared under solvothermal conditions (Phen = 1,10-phenanthroline, Bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine). All the C2 compounds are 3-D polymeric structures, while the C1 compounds are discrete Cd17 clusters. Two of the 3-D C2 clusters can be considered as homosized nano CdSe@CdS core–shell particles (2.0 nm radius) with Cd4Se10 core. Charge-transfer interaction is found between [Ru(Phen/Bpy)3]2+ cations and CdQ cluster anions. The photocurrent behaviors indicate that (1) the current intensities are greatly increased for the dye cation functionalized Cn clusters, (2) the current intensities of the 3-D C2 clusters are larger than those of the discrete C1 clusters, and (3) the current intensities of the selenide clusters are larger than those of the sulfide clusters.

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