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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