BiVO4 semiconductor sensitized solar cells

A Metal-Free Oxygenated Covalent Triazine 2-D Photocatalyst Works Effectively from the Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Spectrum for Water Oxidation Apart from Water Reduction

Solar-driven water splitting is highly desirable for hydrogen fuel production, particularly if water oxidation is effectively sustained in a complete cycle and/or by means of stable and efficient photocatalysts of main group elements, for example, carbon and nitrogen. Despite extensive success on H₂ production on polymer photocatalysts, polymers have met with very limited success for the rate-determining step of the water splitting-water oxidation reaction due to the extremely slow "four-hole" chemistry. Here, the synthesized metal-free oxygenated covalent triazine (OCT) is remarkably active for oxygen production in a wide operation window from UV to visible and even to NIR (up to 800 nm), neatly matching the solar spectrum with an unprecedented external quantum efficiency (even 1% at 600 nm) apart from excellent activity for H₂ production under full arc irradiation, a big step moving toward full solar spectrum water splitting. Experimental results and DFT calculations show that the oxygen incorporation not only narrows the band gap but also causes appropriate band-edge shifts. In the end, a controlled small amount of oxygen in the ionothermal reaction is found to be a promising and facile way of achieving such oxygen incorporation. This discovery is a significant step toward both scientific understanding and practical development of metal-free photocatalysts for cost-effective water oxidation and hydrogen generation over a large spectral window.

Synthesis and characterization of BiVO4 nanoparticles for environmental applications

In the present study, a chemical precipitation method is adopted to synthesize bismuth vanadate nanoparticles. The calcination temperature dependent photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of BiVO₄ nanoparticles are examined. The structural analysis evidences the monoclinic phase of BiVO₄ nanoparticles, where the grain size increases with calcination temperature. Interestingly, BiVO₄ nanoparticles calcined at 400 °C exhibit superior photocatalytic behaviour against methylene blue dye (K = 0.02169 min⁻¹) under natural solar irradiation, which exhibits good stability for up to three cycles. The evolution of antibacterial activity studies using a well diffusion assay suggest that the BiVO₄ nanoparticles calcined at 400 °C can act as an effective growth inhibitor of pathogenic Gram-negative (P. aeruginosa & A. baumannii) and Gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus).

In the present study, a chemical precipitation method is adopted to synthesize bismuth vanadate nanoparticles.

High-Throughput Screening and Optimization of Binary Quantum Dots Cosensitized Solar Cell

Quantum dots (QDs) are considered as the alternative of dye sensitizers for solar cells. However, interfacial construction and evaluation of photocatalytic nanomaterials still remains challenge through the conventional methodology involving demo devices. We propose here a high-throughput screening and optimizing method based on combinatorial chemistry and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). A homogeneous TiO2 catalyst layer is coated on a FTO substrate, which is then covered by a dark mask to expose the photocatalyst array. On each photocatalyst spot, different successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) processes are performed by a programmed solution dispenser to load the binary PbxCd1-xS QDs sensitizers. An optical fiber is employed as the scanning tip of SECM, and the photocatalytic current is recorded during the imaging experiment, through which the optimized technical parameters are figured out. To verify the validity of the combinatorial SECM imaging results, the controlled trials are performed with the corresponding photovoltaic demo devices. The harmonious accordance proved that the methodology based on combinatorial chemistry and SECM is valuable for the interfacial construction, high-throughput screening, and optimization of QDSSCs. Furthermore, the PbxCd1-xS/CdS QDs cosensitized solar cell optimized by SECM achieves a short circuit current density of 24.47 mA/cm(2), an open circuit potential of 421 mV, a fill factor of 0.52, and a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 5.33%.