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Du Y, Arifuddin AA, Qin H, Yan S, Zou Z. Thermal-Stabilized Protonated TiO 2 for Heat-Accelerated Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:5681-5688. [PMID: 38767856 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c01154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
Enhancing the charge separation efficiency is a big challenge that limits the energy conversion efficiency of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Surface states generated by protonation of TiO2 are the efficient charge separation passageways to massively accept or transfer the photogenerated electrons. However, a challenge is to avoid the deprotonation of a protonated TiO2 photoelectrode at the operation temperature. Here, we found that the terminal hydroxyl group (OHT) as surface states on the TiO2 surface generated via electrochemical protonation of TiO2 at 90 °C [90-TiO2-x-(OH)x] is thermally stable. As a result, the thermally enhanced photocurrent of the 90-TiO2-x-(OH)x electrode reached 1.05 mA cm-2 under 80 °C, and the stability was maintained up to 10 h with a slight photocurrent decrease of 3%. The thermally stable surface states as charge separation paths provide an effective method to couple the heat field with the PEC process via thermal-stimulating hopping of polarons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Du
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, People's Republic of China
| | - Alam Andi Arifuddin
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, People's Republic of China
| | - Hao Qin
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, People's Republic of China
- Wuxi Little Swan Electric Company, Limited, 18 Changjiang South Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214028, People's Republic of China
| | - Shicheng Yan
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhigang Zou
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, People's Republic of China
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Nano Technology, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, People's Republic of China
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Huang T, Yang ZX, Li L, Wan H, Leng C, Huang GF, Hu W, Huang WQ. Dipole Effect on Oxygen Evolution Reaction of 2D Janus Single-Atom Catalysts: A Case of Rh Anchored on the P6 m2-NP Configurations. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:2428-2435. [PMID: 38394780 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/25/2024]
Abstract
Catalytic performance of single-atom catalysts (SACs) relies fundamentally on the electronic nature and local coordination environment of the active site. Here, based on a machine-learning (ML)-aided density functional theory (DFT) method, we reveal that the intrinsic dipole in Janus materials has a significant impact on the catalytic activity of SACs, using 2D γ-phosphorus carbide (γ-PC) as a model system. Specifically, a local dipole around the active site is a key degree to tune the catalytic activity and can be used as an important descriptor with a high feature importance of 17.1% in predicting the difference of adsorption free energy (ΔGO* - ΔGOH*) to assess the activity of the oxygen evolution reaction. As a result, the catalytic performance of SACs can be tuned by an intrinsic dipole, in stark contrast to those external stimuli strategies previously used. These results suggest that dipole engineering and the revolutionary DFT-ML hybrid scheme are novel approaches for designing high-performance catalysts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Huang
- Department of Applied Physics, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Zi-Xuan Yang
- Department of Applied Physics, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Lei Li
- Department of Applied Physics, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Hui Wan
- Department of Applied Physics, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
- School of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Changsha University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Can Leng
- College of Intelligent Manufacture, Hunan First Normal University, Changsha 410205, China
| | - Gui-Fang Huang
- Department of Applied Physics, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Wangyu Hu
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
| | - Wei-Qing Huang
- Department of Applied Physics, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
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Kushnir SE, Devyanina NP, Roslyakov IV, Lyskov NV, Stolyarov VS, Napolskii KS. Stained Glass Effect in Anodic Aluminum Oxide Formed in Selenic Acid. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:298-306. [PMID: 38166418 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2024]
Abstract
A combination of the unique porous structure and physical and chemical properties of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) makes it widely used in cutting-edge areas of materials science and nanotechnology. Selenic acid electrolyte provides the ability to obtain AAO with low porosity and high optical transparency and thus is promising for the preparation of AAO photonic crystals (PhCs). Here, we show the influence of crystallographic orientation of Al on the electrochemical oxidation rate in 1 M H2SeO4 as well as on the growth rate, porosity, and the effective refractive index of AAO. The cyclic anodization regime is used to prepare AAO PhCs with photonic band gaps, their wavelength positions are used to measure the AAO growth rate. At an anodization voltage of 40-45 V, the growth rate varies by up to 22.6% with crystallographic orientation of Al grains, causing the stained glass effect, which can be seen with the naked eye.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Nikolay V Lyskov
- Federal Research Center of Problems of Chemical Physics and Medical Chemistry RAS, Chernogolovka, Moscow region 142432, Russia
| | - Vasily S Stolyarov
- Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
- LPEM, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, 75005 Paris, France
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