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Yang X, Cui J, Lin L, Bian A, Dai J, Du W, Guo S, Hu J, Xu X. Enhanced Charge Separation in Nanoporous BiVO4 by External Electron Transport Layer Boosts Solar Water Splitting. Adv Sci (Weinh) 2024; 11:e2305567. [PMID: 38059797 PMCID: PMC10837342 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202305567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Revised: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/08/2023]
Abstract
The optimization of charge transport with electron-hole separation directed toward specific redox reactions is a crucial mission for artificial photosynthesis. Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4 , BVO) is a popular photoanode material for solar water splitting, but it faces tricky challenges in poor charge separation due to its modest charge transport properties. Here, a concept of the external electron transport layer (ETL) is first proposed and demonstrated its effectiveness in suppressing the charge recombination both in bulk and at surface. Specifically, a conformal carbon capsulation applied on BVO enables a remarkable increase in the charge separation efficiency, thanks to its critical roles in passivating surface charge-trapping sites and building external conductance channels. Through decorated with an oxygen evolution catalyst to accelerate surface charge transfer, the carbon-encased BVO (BVO@C) photoanode manifests durable water splitting over 120 h with a high current density of 5.9 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) under 1 sun irradiation (100 mW cm-2 , AM 1.5 G), which is an activity-stability trade-off record for single BVO light absorber. This work opens up a new avenue to steer charge separation via external ETL for solar fuel conversion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaotian Yang
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
| | - Jianpeng Cui
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
| | - Luxue Lin
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
| | - Ang Bian
- School of ScienceJiangsu University of Science and TechnologyZhenjiang212100China
| | - Jun Dai
- School of ScienceJiangsu University of Science and TechnologyZhenjiang212100China
| | - Wei Du
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
| | - Shiying Guo
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
| | - Jingguo Hu
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
| | - Xiaoyong Xu
- College of Physics Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Research CenterYangzhou UniversityYangzhou225002China
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2
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Stanescu S, Alun T, Dappe YJ, Ihiawakrim D, Ersen O, Stanescu D. Enhancement of the Solar Water Splitting Efficiency Mediated by Surface Segregation in Ti-Doped Hematite Nanorods. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2023. [PMID: 37219355 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c02131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Band engineering is employed thoroughly and targets technologically scalable photoanodes for solar water splitting applications. Complex and costly recipes are necessary, often for average performances. Here, we report simple photoanode growth and thermal annealing with effective band engineering results. By comparing Ti-doped hematite photoanodes annealed under nitrogen to photoanodes annealed in air, we found a strongly enhanced photocurrent of more than 200% in the first case. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray spectromicroscopy, we demonstrate that oxidized surface states and increased density of charge carriers are responsible for the enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity. Surface states are found to be related to the formation of pseudo-brookite clusters by surface Ti segregation. Spectro-ptychography is used for the first time at the Ti L3 absorption edge to isolate Ti chemical coordination arising from pseudo-brookite cluster contribution. Correlated with electron microscopy investigation and density functional theory calculations, the synchrotron spectromicroscopy data unambiguously prove the origin of enhanced PEC activity of N2-annealed Ti-doped hematite nanorods. Finally, we present here a handy and cheap surface engineering method beyond the known oxygen vacancy doping, allowing a net gain in the PEC activity for the hematite-based photoanodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Stanescu
- Synchrotron SOLEIL, L'Orme des Merisiers, Départementale 128, 91190 Saint-Aubin, France
| | - Théo Alun
- SPEC, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
| | - Yannick J Dappe
- SPEC, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
| | - Dris Ihiawakrim
- Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (IPCMS), CNRS UMR 7504, 23 Rue du Loess, BP43, 67034 Strasbourg, France
| | - Ovidiu Ersen
- Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (IPCMS), CNRS UMR 7504, 23 Rue du Loess, BP43, 67034 Strasbourg, France
| | - Dana Stanescu
- SPEC, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
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3
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Yuan C, Gao RT, Wang L. Ultrafast Deposition of NiFe Metal-organic Framework Catalysts Boosts BiVO4 Photoanode for Efficient Solar Water Splitting. Chem Asian J 2023:e202300197. [PMID: 37032632 DOI: 10.1002/asia.202300197] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2023]
Abstract
The severe photocorrosion of BiVO4 limits its application in solar energy conversion in the long-term photoelectrochemical stability test. Herein, we synthesized a Fe@Ni-MOFs/BiVO4 photoanode by a simple ultrasonic method and ultrafast deposition, which avoids the problems of damaging the surface structure of photoelectrode. The Fe@Ni-MOFs/BiVO4 shows a photocurrent density of 4.89 mA cm-2 at 1.23 VRHE with an onset potential of 0.25 VRHE under one sun illumination. Importantly, a stability over 30 h at 0.7 VRHE can be obtained, which is so far the best stability character for MOFs-based cocatalysts decorated on BiVO4. During operation, Fe@Ni-MOFs transforms into a homogeneous and active hydroxide layer covering the surface, which exposes more active sites for OER reactions. This work demonstrates a simple strategy for MOFs co-catalysts to obtain fast hole transfer capability and reduce carrier recombination, thereby improving PEC performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cang Yuan
- Inner Mongolia University, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, CHINA
| | - Rui-Ting Gao
- Inner Mongolia University, Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, CHINA
| | - Lei Wang
- Inner Mongolia University, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hohhot 010021, P. R. China., 010021, Hohhot, CHINA
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4
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Gao J, Zhang S, Ma X, Sun Y, Zhang X. Two-Dimensional Sb Modified TiO 2 Nanorod Arrays as Photoanodes for Efficient Solar Water Splitting. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2023; 13:1293. [PMID: 37049386 PMCID: PMC10096649 DOI: 10.3390/nano13071293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 03/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
As one of the widely studied semiconductor materials, titanium dioxide (TiO2) exhibits high photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting performance as well as high chemical and photo stability. However, limited by a wide band gap and fast electron-hole recombination rate, the low solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency remains a bottleneck for the practical application of TiO2-based photoelectrodes. To improve the charge separation and water oxidation efficiency of TiO2 photoanodes, antimonene, a two-dimensional (2D) material obtained by liquid-phase exfoliation, was assembled onto TiO2 nanorod arrays (TNRAs) by a simple drop-coating assembly process. PEC measurements showed that the resulting 2D Sb/TiO2 photoelectrode displayed an enhanced photocurrent density of about 1.32 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH at 0.3 V vs. Hg/HgO, which is ~1.65 times higher than that of the pristine TNRAs. Through UV-Vis absorption and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements, it was possible to ascribe the enhanced PEC performances of the 2D Sb/TiO2 photoanode to increased absorption intensity in the visible light region, and improved interfacial charge-transfer kinetics in the 2D Sb/TiO2 heterojunction, which promotes electron-hole separation, transfer, and collection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Gao
- Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China
| | - Shengqi Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Xiaoqing Ma
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China
| | - Yi Sun
- Aerospace Hydrogen Energy (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200241, China
- Power-Sources of Space-Sources Technology, Shanghai Institute of Space State Key Laboratory, Shanghai 200233, China
| | - Xiaoyan Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
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5
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Xi F, Bozheyev F, Han X, Rusu M, Rappich J, Abdi FF, Bogdanoff P, Kaltsoyannis N, Fiechter S. Enhancing Hydrogen Evolution Reaction via Synergistic Interaction between the [Mo 3S 13] 2- Cluster Co-Catalyst and WSe 2 Photocathode. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2022; 14:52815-52824. [PMID: 36379472 PMCID: PMC9716521 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c14312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
A thiomolybdate [Mo3S13]2- nanocluster is a promising catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to the high number of active edge sites. In this work, thiomolybdate cluster films are prepared by spin-coating of a (NH4)2Mo3S13 solution both on FTO glass substrates as hydrogen evolving electrodes and on highly 00.1-textured WSe2 for photoelectrochemical water splitting. As an electrocatalyst, [Mo3S13]2- clusters demonstrate a low overpotential of 220 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte (pH 0.3) and remain structurally stable during the electrochemical cycling as revealed by in situ Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, as a co-catalyst on WSe2, [Mo3S13]2- clusters enhance the photocurrent substantially by more than two orders of magnitude (from 0.02 to 2.8 mA cm-2 at 0 V vs RHE). The synergistic interactions between the photoelectrode and catalyst, i.e., surface passivation and band bending modification by the [Mo3S13]2- cluster film, promoted HER catalytic activity of [Mo3S13]2- clusters influenced by the WSe2 support, are revealed by intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, respectively. The band alignment of the WSe2/[Mo3S13]2- heterojunction, which facilitates the electron injection, is determined by correlating UV-vis with photoelectron yield spectroscopy results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fanxing Xi
- Institute
for Solar Fuels, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109Berlin, Germany
- PV
ComB, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für
Materialien und Energie GmbH, Schwarzschildstrasse 3, 12489Berlin, Germany
| | - Farabi Bozheyev
- Institute
for Solar Fuels, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109Berlin, Germany
- Institute
of Photoelectrochemistry, Helmholtz-Zentrum
Hereon, 21502Geesthacht, Germany
- National
Nanolaboratory, al-Farabi Kazakh National
University, 71 al-Farabi
Ave., 050000Almaty, Kazakhstan
| | - Xiaoyu Han
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, ManchesterM13 9PL, U.K.
| | - Marin Rusu
- Department
Structure and Dynamics of Energy Materials, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109Berlin, Germany
| | - Jörg Rappich
- Institute
Silicon Photovoltaics, Helmholtz-Zentrum
Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Magnusstrasse 12, 12489Berlin, Germany
| | - Fatwa F. Abdi
- Institute
for Solar Fuels, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109Berlin, Germany
| | - Peter Bogdanoff
- Institute
for Solar Fuels, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109Berlin, Germany
| | - Nikolas Kaltsoyannis
- Department
of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, ManchesterM13 9PL, U.K.
| | - Sebastian Fiechter
- Institute
for Solar Fuels, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109Berlin, Germany
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6
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Wang X, Mayrhofer L, Keunecke M, Estrade S, Lopez-Conesa L, Moseler M, Waag A, Schaefer L, Shi W, Meng X, Chu J, Fan Z, Shen H. Low-Energy Hydrogen Ions Enable Efficient Room-Temperature and Rapid Plasma Hydrogenation of TiO 2 Nanorods for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Activity. Small 2022; 18:e2204136. [PMID: 36192163 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202204136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Revised: 09/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Hydrogenation is a promising technique to prepare black TiO2 (H-TiO2 ) for solar water splitting, however, there remain limitations such as severe preparation conditions and underexplored hydrogenation mechanisms to inefficient hydrogenation and poor photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance to be overcome for practical applications. Here, a room-temperature and rapid plasma hydrogenation (RRPH) strategy that realizes low-energy hydrogen ions of below 250 eV to fabricate H-TiO2 nanorods with controllable disordered shell, outperforming incumbent hydrogenations, is reported. The mechanisms of efficient RRPH and enhanced PEC activity are experimentally and theoretically unraveled. It is discovered that low-energy hydrogen ions with fast subsurface transport kinetics and shallow penetration depth features, enable them to directly penetrate TiO2 via unique multiple penetration pathways to form controllable disordered shell and suppress bulk defects, ultimately leading to improved PEC performance. Furthermore, the hydrogenation-property experiments reveal that the enhanced PEC activity is mainly ascribed to increasing band bending and bulk defect suppression, compared to reported H-TiO2 , a superior photocurrent density of 2.55 mA cm-2 at 1.23 VRHE is achieved. These findings demonstrate a sustainable strategy which offers great promise of TiO2 and other oxides to achieve further-improved material properties for broad practical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaodan Wang
- Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films, Bienroder Weg 54E, 38108, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Leonhard Mayrhofer
- Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Wöhlerstraße 11, 79108, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Martin Keunecke
- Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films, Bienroder Weg 54E, 38108, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Sonia Estrade
- Department d'Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, c/Martí Franquès 1, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
| | - Lluis Lopez-Conesa
- Department d'Electrònica, Universitat de Barcelona, c/Martí Franquès 1, Barcelona, 08028, Spain
| | - Michael Moseler
- Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Wöhlerstraße 11, 79108, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Andreas Waag
- Institute for Semiconductor Technology, TU Braunschweig, Hans-Sommer-Strasse 66, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Lothar Schaefer
- Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films, Bienroder Weg 54E, 38108, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Weidong Shi
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Xuefu Road 301, Zhenjiang, 212013, China
| | - Xiangjian Meng
- Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yu Tian Road 500, Shanghai, 200083, China
| | - Junhao Chu
- Institute of Optoelectronics, Fudan University, Song Hu Road 2005, Shanghai, 200438, China
| | - Zhiyong Fan
- Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, 999077, China
| | - Hao Shen
- Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films, Bienroder Weg 54E, 38108, Braunschweig, Germany
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Wu X, Zhao W, Hu Y, Xiao G, Ni H, Ikeda S, Ng Y, Jiang F. Research on the Influence of the Interfacial Properties Between a Cu 3 BiS 3 Film and an In x Cd 1- x S Buffer Layer for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. Adv Sci (Weinh) 2022; 9:e2204029. [PMID: 36253117 PMCID: PMC9685470 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202204029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Revised: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The ternary compound photovoltaic semiconductor Cu3 BiS3 thin film-based photoelectrode demonstrates a quite promising potential for photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution. The presented high onset potential of 0.9 VRHE attracts much attention and shows that the Cu3 BiS3 thin films are quite good as an efficient solar water splitting photoelectrode. However, the CdS buffer does not fit the Cu3 BiS3 thin film: the conduction band offset between CdS and Cu3 BiS3 reaches 0.7 eV, and such a high conduction band offset (CBO) significantly increases the interfacial recombination ratio and is the main reason for the relatively low photocurrent of the Cu3 BiS3 /CdS photoelectrode. In this study, the Inx Cd1- x S buffer layer is found to be significantly lowered the CBO of CBS/buffer and that the In incorporation ratio of the buffer influences the CBO value of the CBS/buffer. The Pt-TiO2 /In0.6 Cd0.4 S/Cu3 BiS3 photocathode exhibits an appreciable photocurrent density of ≈12.20 mA cm-2 at 0 VRHE with onset potential of more than 0.9 VRHE , and the ABPE of the Cu3 BiS3 -based photocathode reaches the highest value of 3.13%. By application of the In0.6 Cd0.4 S buffer, the Cu3 BiS3 -BiVO4 tandem cell presents a stable and excellent unbiased STH of 2.57% for over 100 h.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaomin Wu
- Institute of Hydrogen Energy for Carbon Peaking and Carbon NeutralizationSchool of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal UniversityFoshan528225China
| | - Weidong Zhao
- Institute of Hydrogen Energy for Carbon Peaking and Carbon NeutralizationSchool of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal UniversityFoshan528225China
| | - Yucheng Hu
- Institute of Hydrogen Energy for Carbon Peaking and Carbon NeutralizationSchool of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal UniversityFoshan528225China
| | - Guohong Xiao
- Institute of Hydrogen Energy for Carbon Peaking and Carbon NeutralizationSchool of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal UniversityFoshan528225China
| | - Huanyang Ni
- Institute of Hydrogen Energy for Carbon Peaking and Carbon NeutralizationSchool of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal UniversityFoshan528225China
| | - Shigeru Ikeda
- Department of ChemistryKonan University9‐1 Okamoto, HigashinadaKobeHyogo658–8501Japan
| | - Yunhau Ng
- School of Energy and EnvironmentCity University of Hong KongKowloonHong Kong999077China
| | - Feng Jiang
- Institute of Hydrogen Energy for Carbon Peaking and Carbon NeutralizationSchool of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal UniversityFoshan528225China
- Institute of Semiconductor Science and TechnologySouth China Normal University55 Zhongshan Avenue West, Tianhe DistrictGuangzhou510631China
- Key Laboratory of Polar Materials and DevicesMinistry of EducationEast China Normal UniversityInformation Building, 500 Dongchuan RoadShanghai200241China
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Zhang Z, Cueto C, Ding Y, Yu L, Russell TP, Emrick T, Liu Y. High-Performance 1 cm 2 Perovskite-Organic Tandem Solar Cells with a Solvent-Resistant and Thickness-Insensitive Interconnecting Layer. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2022; 14:29896-29904. [PMID: 35758244 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c06760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Organic solar cells (OSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) are promising candidates for next-generation thin film photovoltaic technologies. The integration of OSCs with PVSCs in tandem devices is now attracting significant attention due to their similar fabrication procedures and the potential to afford a higher device performance. Here, a thickness-insensitive and solvent-resistant interconnecting layer is developed to efficiently connect perovskite and organic subcells with low contact resistance. The resultant perovskite-organic tandem devices maintain high efficiencies over a wide thickness range of the interconnecting layer, from ∼20 nm to ∼50 nm, providing an easily fabricated, solvent-resistant platform to integrate perovskite and organic active layers with low-temperature solution processing techniques. The tandem devices containing an ultrathin PVSC and a typical non-fullerene OSC give a maximum efficiency of 19.2%, which is much higher than those of the single-junction devices. Moreover, highly reproducible 1 cm2 perovskite-organic tandem devices are achieved using the thickness-insensitive and solvent-resistant interconnecting layer, and an efficiency of 17.8% is realized. These 1 cm2 tandem solar cells are used successfully in solar-to-hydrogen systems to afford a solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency of 11.2%. Overall, these advances represent significant progress in the design of ultrathin and facile solution processed perovskite-organic tandem solar cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhewei Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter, Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Christopher Cueto
- Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 120 Governors Drive, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Yiming Ding
- State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, P. R. China
| | - Le Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, P. R. China
| | - Thomas P Russell
- Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 120 Governors Drive, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Todd Emrick
- Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 120 Governors Drive, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, United States
| | - Yao Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter, Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
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9
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Liu X, Hao Z, Wang H, Wang T, Shen Z, Zhang H, Zhan S, Gong J. Enhanced localized dipole of Pt-Au single-site catalyst for solar water splitting. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2119723119. [PMID: 35165186 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119723119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Single-atom or single-site catalysts have received considerable research interest in photocatalysis and many other heterogeneous catalytic processes. However, the single metal sites did not obviously change the charge transportation process of the photocatalyst and thus hardly contributed to the enhancement of charge separation and transfer. Inspired by the synergy between metal species in classical catalytic reactions, this research presents a strategy of constructing a Pt-Au binary single-site catalyst. Pt-Au binary single sites not only functioned as the catalytic reactive sites but also modulated the charge distribution and enhanced the internal electric field. The concept and the strategy of this work are expected to provide a novel perspective for improving photocatalytic charge transportation dynamics. Solar water splitting is regarded as holding great potential for clean fuels production. However, the efficiency of charge separation/transfer of photocatalysts is still too low for industrial application. This paper describes the synthesis of a Pt-Au binary single-site loaded g-C3N4 nanosheet photocatalyst inspired by the concept of the dipole. The existent larger charge imbalance greatly enhanced the localized molecular dipoles over adjacent Pt-Au sites in contrast to the unary counterparts. The superposition of molecular dipoles then further strengthened the internal electric field and thus promoted the charge transportation dynamics. In the modeling photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, the optimal Pt-Au binary site photocatalysts (0.25% loading) showed 4.9- and 2.3-fold enhancement of performance compared with their Pt and Au single-site counterparts, respectively. In addition, the reaction barrier over the Pt-Au binary sites was lowered, promoting the hydrogen evolution process. This work offers a valuable strategy for improving photocatalytic charge transportation dynamics by constructing polynary single sites.
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10
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Baues S, Vocke H, Harms L, Rücker KK, Wark M, Wittstock G. Combinatorial Screening of Cu-W Oxide-Based Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2022; 14:6590-6603. [PMID: 35076196 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c20837] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Metal oxide libraries for photoanodes for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) were generated by printing a metal salt solution in an array layout, followed by calcination to yield 22 ternary metal oxide systems. The libraries included a ternary metal cation system based on CuWO4 with one out of eight transition or posttransition metal ions Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Bi, and Ga in different overall atomic ratios. The photocatalyst libraries were screened by scanning photoelectrochemical microscopy for the highest anodic photocurrents. Array elements that showed promising performance were printed in another set of eight libraries with smaller increments of overall composition. Improved performance with respect to CuWO4 was found for Ga, Co, and Ni as the third element. A comparison of the most active composition of those arrays within one library showed the highest activity for Cu48Ga3W49Ox. Printing spots of identical composition (Cu48Ga3W49Ox, Cu44Ni9W47Ox, and Cu44Co9W47Ox) over a larger area facilitated further characterization by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, chopped light voltammetry, and scanning electrochemical microscopy for the OER. High and stable steady-state photocurrents were generated in a photoelectrochemical cell for all three electrodes even at a low constant bias voltage. The best overall photoanode composition Cu48Ga3W49Ox showed currents that were 36 times higher than the currents of the binary Cu50W50Ox system. Significant n-doping was found by UPS valence band spectra for Ga-containing materials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Svenja Baues
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, School of Mathematics and Science, Institute of Chemistry, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Heinrich Vocke
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, School of Mathematics and Science, Institute of Chemistry, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Lena Harms
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, School of Mathematics and Science, Institute of Chemistry, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Konstantin K Rücker
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, School of Mathematics and Science, Institute of Chemistry, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Michael Wark
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, School of Mathematics and Science, Institute of Chemistry, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Gunther Wittstock
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, School of Mathematics and Science, Institute of Chemistry, 26111 Oldenburg, Germany
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11
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Wang Y, Chen X, Xiu H, Zhuang H, Li J, Zhou Y, Liu D, Kuang Y. General In Situ Photoactivation Route with IPCE over 80% toward CdS Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Applications. Small 2021; 17:e2104307. [PMID: 34725925 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202104307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2021] [Revised: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Cost-effective photoanodes with remarkable electronic properties are highly demanded for practical photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The ability to manipulate the surface carrier separation and recombination is pivotal for achieving high PEC performance for water splitting. Here, a facile and economical approach is reported for substantially improving the surface charge separation property of CdS photoanodes through in situ photoactivation, which significantly reduces surface charge recombination through the formation of thiosulfate ion which is favorable to the transfer of photogenerated holes and a uniform nanoporous morphology via the dissolving Cd2+ with phosphate ions on the surface of CdS. The resulting CdS electrodes through scalable particle transfer method exhibit nearly tripled photocurrents, with an incident-photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) at 480 nm exceeding 80% at 0.6 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). And the CdS thin films prepared from chemical bath deposition display quadrupled photocurrents after the stir and PEC activation, with an IPCE of 91.7% at 455 nm and 0.6 V versus RHE. With the suppression of photocorrosion in alkaline borate buffer, the activated photoanodes show great stability for solar hydrogen production at the sacrifice of sulfite. This work brings insights into the design of nanoporous metal sulfide semiconductors for solar water splitting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Wang
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Featured Biochemical and Chemical Materials, Ningde Normal University, Ningde, Fujian, 352100, China
| | - Xiuyu Chen
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China
| | - Hao Xiu
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China
| | - Huanglong Zhuang
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Featured Biochemical and Chemical Materials, Ningde Normal University, Ningde, Fujian, 352100, China
- Fujian Province University Key Laboratory of Green Energy and Environment Catalysis, College of Chemistry and Materials, Ningde Normal University, Ningde, Fujian, 352100, China
| | - Jianming Li
- Petroleum Geology Research and Laboratory Center, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), PetroChina, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - Yang Zhou
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China
| | - Deyu Liu
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, China
| | - Yongbo Kuang
- Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100000, China
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12
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Chang S, Yu J, Wang R, Fu Q, Xu X. LaTaON 2 Mesoporous Single Crystals for Efficient Photocatalytic Water Oxidation and Z-Scheme Overall Water Splitting. ACS Nano 2021; 15:18153-18162. [PMID: 34677058 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c06871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
LaTaON2 porous single crystals (PSCs), integrating structural coherence and porous microstructures, will warrant promising photocatalytic performance. The absence of grain boundaries in PSCs ensures rapid photocarrier transportation from bulk to the surface, thereby mitigating photocarriers' recombination. Porous microstructures not only provide ample reachable surface to host photochemical reactions but also reinforce photon-matter interactions by additional photon reflection/scattering. Here, we have synthesized LaTaON2 PSCs via a topotactic route and show significantly improved photocatalytic performance. Efficient water oxidation into O2 has been realized by LaTaON2 PSCs with an apparent quantum efficiency as high as 5.7% at 420 ± 20 nm. Stable overall water splitting into stoichiometric H2 and O2 has also been achieved in a Z-scheme setup using LaTaON2 PSCs as the O2 evolution photocatalyst. These results not only prove that PSCs facilitate photocarrier migrations, which in turn deliver exceptional photocatalytic performance, but also imply that PSCs are useful to reinvigorate conventional semiconductor photocatalysts toward efficient solar energy conversions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shufang Chang
- Clinical and Central Lab, Putuo People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200060, China
- Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
| | - Jinxing Yu
- Clinical and Central Lab, Putuo People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200060, China
- Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
| | - Ran Wang
- Clinical and Central Lab, Putuo People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200060, China
- Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
| | - Qingyang Fu
- Clinical and Central Lab, Putuo People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200060, China
- Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
| | - Xiaoxiang Xu
- Clinical and Central Lab, Putuo People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200060, China
- Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
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13
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Narangari PR, Butson JD, Tan HH, Jagadish C, Karuturi S. Surface-Tailored InP Nanowires via Self-Assembled Au Nanodots for Efficient and Stable Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution. Nano Lett 2021; 21:6967-6974. [PMID: 34397217 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
With a band gap close to the Shockley-Quiesser limit and excellent conduction band alignment with the water reduction potential, InP is an ideal photocathode material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water reduction. Here, we develop facile self-assembled Au nanodots based on dewetting phenomena as a masking technique to fabricate wafer-scale InP nanowires (NWs) via a top-down approach. In addition, we report dual-function wet treatment using sulfur-dissolved oleylamine (S-OA) to remove a plasma-damaged surface in a controlled manner and stabilize InP NWs against surface corrosion in harsh electrolyte solutions. The resulting InP NW photocathodes exhibit an excellent photocurrent density of 33 mA/cm2 under 1 sun illumination in 1 M HCl with a highly stabilized performance without needing additional protection layers. Our approach combining large-area NW fabrication and surface engineering synergistically enhances light harvesting and PEC performance and stability, thereby providing a pathway for the development of efficient and durable InP photoelectrodes in a scalable manner.
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14
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Sun M, Gao RT, He J, Liu X, Nakajima T, Zhang X, Wang L. Photo-driven Oxygen Vacancies Extends Charge Carrier Lifetime for Efficient Solar Water Splitting. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2021; 60:17601-17607. [PMID: 34018300 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202104754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Revised: 05/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
A photocharge/discharge strategy is proposed to initiate the WO3 photoelectrode and suppress the main charge recombination, which remarkably improves the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance. The photocharged WO3 surrounded by a 8-10 nm overlayer and oxygen vacancies could be operated more than 25 cycles with 50 h durability without significant decay on PEC activity. A photocharged WO3 /CuO photoanode exhibits an outstanding photocurrent of 3.2 mA cm-2 at 1.23 VRHE with a low onset potential of 0.6 VRHE , which is one of the best performances of p-n heterojunction structure. Using nonadiabatic molecular dynamics combined with time-domain DFT, we clarify the prolonged charge carrier lifetime of photocharged WO3 , as well as how electronic systems of photocharged WO3 /CuO semiconductors enable the effective photoinduced electrons transfer from WO3 into CuO. This work provides a feasible route to address excessive defects existed in photoelectrodes without causing extra recombination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mao Sun
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering & Inner Mongolia Engineering and Technology Research Center for Catalytic Conversion and Utilization of Carbon Resource, Molecules, Inner Mongolia University, 235 West University Street, Hohhot, 010021, China
| | - Rui-Ting Gao
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering & Inner Mongolia Engineering and Technology Research Center for Catalytic Conversion and Utilization of Carbon Resource, Molecules, Inner Mongolia University, 235 West University Street, Hohhot, 010021, China
| | - Jinlu He
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering & Inner Mongolia Engineering and Technology Research Center for Catalytic Conversion and Utilization of Carbon Resource, Molecules, Inner Mongolia University, 235 West University Street, Hohhot, 010021, China
| | - Xianhu Liu
- Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Mold, Ministry of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China
| | - Tomohiko Nakajima
- Advanced Coating Technology Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba Central 5, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8565, Japan
| | - Xueyuan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China
| | - Lei Wang
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering & Inner Mongolia Engineering and Technology Research Center for Catalytic Conversion and Utilization of Carbon Resource, Molecules, Inner Mongolia University, 235 West University Street, Hohhot, 010021, China.,Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Mold, Ministry of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China
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15
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Wei Y, Wan J, Wang J, Zhang X, Yu R, Yang N, Wang D. Hollow Multishelled Structured SrTiO 3 with La/Rh Co-Doping for Enhanced Photocatalytic Water Splitting under Visible Light. Small 2021; 17:e2005345. [PMID: 33464723 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202005345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2020] [Revised: 10/02/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
La- and Rh-co-doped SrTiO3 (STO:La/Rh) hollow multishelled structures (HoMSs) are fabricated by adding La3+ and Rh3+ ions during the hydrothermal process of converting TiO2 HoMSs to STO HoMSs. STO:La/Rh HoMSs have successfully expanded the light absorption edge to 520 nm. Accompanied with the benefits of the unique hierarchical structure and relatively thin shells, STO:La/Rh HoMSs exhibit elevated light-harvesting capacity and charge separation efficiency. Compared with STO:La/Rh nanoparticles (NPs), STO:La/Rh HoMSs demonstrate enhanced photocurrent response, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity, and the quantum efficiency. Moreover, overall water splitting is realized by a Z-scheme system combining STO:La/Rh HoMSs with BiVO4 (BVO) nanosheets with 1 wt% Pt as the co-catalyst. Steady evolution of hydrogen and oxygen is performed under both visible light and simulated sunlight irradiation. The solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of double-shelled STO:La/Rh HoMS-BVO photocatalysts reaches 0.08%, which is twofold higher than STO:La/Rh NP-BVO photocatalysts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanze Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 North 2nd Street, Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China
- Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - Jiawei Wan
- State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 North 2nd Street, Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Jiangyan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 North 2nd Street, Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Xing Zhang
- Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - Ranbo Yu
- Department of Physical Chemistry, School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China
| | - Nailiang Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 North 2nd Street, Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Dan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 North 2nd Street, Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China
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16
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Kumari S, Junqueira JRC, Schuhmann W, Ludwig A. High-Throughput Exploration of Metal Vanadate Thin-Film Systems (M-V-O, M = Cu, Ag, W, Cr, Co, Fe) for Solar Water Splitting: Composition, Structure, Stability, and Photoelectrochemical Properties. ACS Comb Sci 2020; 22:844-857. [PMID: 33103893 DOI: 10.1021/acscombsci.0c00150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput characterization of thin-film materials libraries enable to efficiently identify both photoelectrochemically active and inactive, as well as stable and instable systems for solar water splitting. This is shown on six ternary metal vanadate (M-V-O, M = Cu, Ag, W, Cr, Co, Fe) thin-film materials libraries, fabricated using combinatorial reactive magnetron cosputtering with subsequent annealing in air. By means of high-throughput characterization of these libraries correlations between composition, crystal structure, photocurrent density, and stability of the M-V-O systems in different electrolytes such as acidic, neutral and alkaline media were identified. The systems Cu-V-O and Ag-V-O are stable in alkaline electrolyte and exhibited photocurrents of 170 and 554 μA/cm2, respectively, whereas the systems W-V-O, Cr-V-O, and Co-V-O are not stable in alkaline electrolyte. However, the Cr-V-O and Co-V-O systems showed an enlarged photoactive region in acidic electrolyte, albeit with very low photocurrents (<10 μA/cm2). Complete data sets obtained from these different screening sets, including information on nonpromising systems, lays groundwork for their use to predict new systems for solar water splitting, for example, by machine learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swati Kumari
- Chair for Materials Discovery and Interfaces, Institute for Materials, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstrasse 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany
| | - João R. C. Junqueira
- Analytical Chemistry—Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstrasse 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Schuhmann
- Analytical Chemistry—Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstrasse 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany
| | - Alfred Ludwig
- Chair for Materials Discovery and Interfaces, Institute for Materials, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstrasse 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany
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17
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Lhermitte CR, Polo A, Yao L, Boudoire FA, Guijarro N, Sivula K. Generalized Synthesis to Produce Transparent Thin Films of Ternary Metal Oxide Photoelectrodes. ChemSusChem 2020; 13:3645-3653. [PMID: 32372487 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202000926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Developing facile approaches to prepare non-light-scattering ternary oxide thin film photoelectrodes is an important goal for solar water splitting tandem cells. Herein, a novel synthesis route is reported that employs ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) to enable compatible water solubility of diverse metal cations, which affords transparent films by solution processing. By using BiVO4 as a model material, a remarkable improvement in transparency is demonstrated, quantified by the direct transmittance at 600 nm of >80 % versus the <10 % observed with state-of-the-art electrodeposited thin films while maintaining reasonable solar-driven oxidation photocurrents (1.75 mA cm-2 in the presence of a sulfite hole scavenger). Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the synthesis technique can be applied in a general fashion towards the synthesis of diverse n- and p-type metal oxide materials, such as ZnFe2 O4 and CuFeO2 .
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles R Lhermitte
- Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Annalisa Polo
- Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Golgi 19, 20133, Milano, Italy
| | - Liang Yao
- Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Florent A Boudoire
- Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nestor Guijarro
- Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Kevin Sivula
- Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
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18
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Lee D, Baltazar VU, Smart TJ, Ping Y, Choi KS. Electrochemical Oxidation of Metal-Catechol Complexes as a New Synthesis Route to the High-Quality Ternary Photoelectrodes: A Case Study of Fe 2TiO 5 Photoanodes. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2020; 12:29275-29284. [PMID: 32551469 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c05359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
A new electrochemical, solution-based synthesis method to prepare uniform multinary oxide photoelectrodes was developed. This method involves solubilizing multiple metal ions as metal-catechol complexes in a pH condition where they are otherwise insoluble. When some of the catechol ligands are electrochemically oxidized, the remaining metal complexes become insoluble and are deposited as metal-catechol films on the working electrode. The resulting films are then annealed to form crystalline multinary oxide electrodes. Because catechol can serve as a complexing agent for a variety of metal ions, the newly developed method can be used to prepare a variety of multinary oxide films. In the present study, we used this method to prepare n-type Fe2TiO5 photoanodes and investigated their photoelectrochemical properties for use in a photoelectrochemical water-splitting cell. We also performed a computational investigation with two goals. The first goal was to investigate small electron polaron formation in Fe2TiO5. Charge transport in most oxide photoelectrodes involves small polaron hopping, but small polaron formation in Fe2TiO5 has not been examined prior to this work. The second goal was to investigate the effect of substitutional Sn doping at the Fe site on the electronic band structure and the carrier concentration of Fe2TiO5. The combined experimental and theoretical results presented in this study greatly improve our understanding of Fe2TiO5 for use as a photoanode.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongho Lee
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Valentin Urena Baltazar
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States
| | - Tyler J Smart
- Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States
| | - Yuan Ping
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States
| | - Kyoung-Shin Choi
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
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19
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de Almeida RM, Ferrari VC, Dos S Souza J, Souza FL, Alves WA. Tailoring a Zinc Oxide Nanorod Surface by Adding an Earth-Abundant Cocatalyst for Induced Sunlight Water Oxidation. Chemphyschem 2020; 21:476-483. [PMID: 31943643 DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201901171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2019] [Revised: 01/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Herein, a detailed investigation of the surface modification of a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod electrode with FeOOH nanoparticles dispersed in glycine was conducted to improve the water oxidation reaction assisted by sunlight. The results were systematically analysed in terms of the general parameters (light absorption, charge separation, and surface for catalysis) that govern the photocurrent density response of metal oxide as photoanode in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. ZnO electrodes surface were modified with different concentration of FeOOH nanoparticles using the spin-coating deposition method, and it was found that 6-layer deposition of glycine-FeOOH nanoparticles is the optimum condition. The glycine plays an important role decreasing the agglomeration of FeOOH nanoparticles over the ZnO electrode surface and increasing the overall performance. Comparing bare ZnO electrodes with the ones modified with glycine-FeOOH nanoparticles an enhanced photocurrent density can be observed from 0.27 to 0.57 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE under sunlight irradiation. The impedance spectroscopy data aid us to conclude that the higher photocurrent density is an effect associated with more efficient surface for chemical reaction instead of electronic improvement. Nevertheless, the charge separation efficiency remains low for this system. The present discovery shows that the combination of glycine-FeOOH nanoparticle is suitable and environmentally-friend cocatalyst to enhance the ZnO nanorod electrode activity for the oxygen evolution reaction assisted by sunlight irradiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rafael M de Almeida
- Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, 09210-580, Brazil
| | - Victoria C Ferrari
- Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, 09210-580, Brazil.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland College Park, Maryland, 20742, United States
| | - Juliana Dos S Souza
- Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, 09210-580, Brazil
| | - Flavio L Souza
- Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, 09210-580, Brazil.,Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano) Campinas, São Paulo, 13083-970, Brazil
| | - Wendel A Alves
- Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, 09210-580, Brazil
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20
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Lin YC, Hsu LC, Lin CY, Chiang CL, Chou CM, Wu WW, Chen SY, Lin YG. Sandwich-Nanostructured n-Cu 2O/AuAg/p-Cu 2O Photocathode with Highly Positive Onset Potential for Improved Water Reduction. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:38625-38632. [PMID: 31571473 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b11737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
An n-Cu2O layer formed a high-quality buried junction with p-Cu2O to increase the photovoltage and thus to shift the turn-on voltage positively. Mott-Schottky measurements confirmed that the improvement benefited from a positive shift in flat-band potential. The obtained extremely positive onset potential, 0.8 VRHE in n-Cu2O/AuAg/p-Cu2O, is comparable with measurements from water reduction catalysts. The AuAg alloy sandwiched between the homojunction of n-Cu2O and p-Cu2O improved the photocatalytic performance. This alloy both served as an electron relay and promoted electron-hole pair generation in nearby semiconductors; the charge transfer between n-Cu2O and p-Cu2O in the sandwich structure was measured with X-ray absorption spectra. The proposed sandwich structure can be considered as a new direction for the design of efficient solar-related devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Chang Lin
- Department of Material Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
| | - Liang-Ching Hsu
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center , Hsinchu 30076 , Taiwan
| | - Chia-Yu Lin
- Department of Chemical Engineering , National Cheng Kung University , Tainan 70101 , Taiwan
| | - Chao-Lung Chiang
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center , Hsinchu 30076 , Taiwan
| | - Che-Min Chou
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center , Hsinchu 30076 , Taiwan
| | - Wen-Wei Wu
- Department of Material Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
| | - San-Yuan Chen
- Department of Material Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
- Frontier Research Center on Fundamental and Applied Sciences of Matters , National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu 30013 , Taiwan
| | - Yan-Gu Lin
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center , Hsinchu 30076 , Taiwan
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21
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Mabayoje O, Liu Y, Wang M, Shoola A, Ebrahim AM, Frenkel AI, Mullins CB. Electrodeposition of MoS x Hydrogen Evolution Catalysts from Sulfur-Rich Precursors. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:32879-32886. [PMID: 31414789 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b07277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Amorphous molybdenum sulfides (a-MoSx) are known to be active electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but the role stoichiometry of the sulfur atoms plays in the HER activity remains unclear. In this work, we deposited thin films of a-MoSx from two thiomolybdate deposition baths with different sulfur ratios (MoS42- and Mo2S122-) and showed that the sulfur stoichiometry, as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, is controlled by the precursor of choice and the electrochemical method used to deposit the thin films. Using the Mo2S122- precursor allows access to a MoS6 thin film, with a higher S/Mo ratio compared with that of any previously reported electrodeposited films. We also examined the effect of electrochemistry on the resulting S/Mo ratio in the as-prepared a-MoSx thin films. Samples with S/Mo ratios ranging from 2 to 6 were electrodeposited on glassy carbon (GC) substrates by using anodic, cathodic, or cyclic voltammetry deposition. The a-MoSx thin films deposited on GC substrates were tested as HER catalysts in acidic electrolytes. The overpotentials needed to drive current densities of 10 mA/cm2 ranged from 160 mV for MoS6 samples to 216 mV for MoS2 samples, signifying the important role sulfur content plays in HER activity of the prepared films. Furthermore, we characterized the deactivation of the a-MoSx films and found that the sulfur content is gradually depleted over time, leading to a slow deactivation of the a-MoSx thin-film catalysts. We showed a facile procedure that affords a-MoSx films with high sulfur content by using S-rich precursors and highlighted the role of sulfur in the prepared films for HER.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yang Liu
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering , Central South University , Changsha 410083 , China
| | | | | | - Amani M Ebrahim
- Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering , Stony Brook University , Stony Brook 11794 , United States
| | - Anatoly I Frenkel
- Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering , Stony Brook University , Stony Brook 11794 , United States
- Chemistry Department , Brookhaven National Laboratory , Upton , New York 11973 , United States
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22
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Wang W, Guo B, Dai H, Zhao C, Xie G, Ma R, Akram MZ, Shan H, Cai C, Fang Z, Gong JR. Improving the Water Oxidation Efficiency with a Light-Induced Electric Field in Nanograting Photoanodes. Nano Lett 2019; 19:6133-6139. [PMID: 31430170 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Severe charge recombination in solar water-splitting devices significantly limits their performance. To address this issue, we design a frustum of a cone nanograting configuration by taking the hematite and Au-based thin-film photoanode as a model system, which greatly improves the photoelectrochemical water oxidation activity, affording an approximately 10-fold increase in the photocurrent density at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode compared to the planar counterpart. The surface plasmon polariton-induced electric field in hematite plays a dominant role in efficiency enhancement by facilitating charge separation, thus dramatically increasing the incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) by more than 2 orders of magnitude in the near band gap of hematite. And the relatively weak electric field caused by light scattering in the nanograting structure is responsible for the approximate maximum 20-fold increase in IPCE within a broadband wavelength range. Our scalable strategy can be generalized to other solar energy conversion systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenrong Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Department of Applied Physics , Chongqing University , Chongqing 400044 , China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
| | - Beidou Guo
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , China
| | - Haitao Dai
- Tianjin Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials Physics and Preparing Technology, School of Science , Tianjin University , Tianjin 300072 , China
| | - Chang Zhao
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , China
| | - Guancai Xie
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , China
| | - Renping Ma
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
| | - Muhammad Zain Akram
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , China
| | - Hangyong Shan
- School of Physics, State Key Lab for Mesoscopic Physics, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, and Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education , Peking University , Beijing 100871 , China
| | - Congzhong Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Department of Applied Physics , Chongqing University , Chongqing 400044 , China
| | - Zheyu Fang
- School of Physics, State Key Lab for Mesoscopic Physics, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, and Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education , Peking University , Beijing 100871 , China
| | - Jian Ru Gong
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , China
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23
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Li Y, Liu J, Li X, Wan X, Pan R, Rong H, Liu J, Chen W, Zhang J. Evolution of Hollow CuInS 2 Nanododecahedrons via Kirkendall Effect Driven by Cation Exchange for Efficient Solar Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:27170-27177. [PMID: 31273971 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b05325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Hollow-structured semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have aroused tremendous research interest because of their compelling structure-related properties that can facilitate the development of many important applications including solar water splitting. However, the creation of multicomponent semiconductor NCs (such as I-III-VI2 and I2-II-IV-VI4 semiconductors) possessing a hollow architecture still remains a great challenge because of the difficulty in balancing the reactivities of multiple precursors. In this study, we report an effective strategy to prepare hollow CuInS2 nanododecahedrons featuring high uniformity in morphology and composition, based on the Kirkendall effect driven by the cation exchange between Cu+ and In3+ using Cu2-xS nanododecahedrons as templates. The unequal diffusion rates of cations result in an inward flux of vacancies favorably along the (0 16 0) facets of Cu2-xS dodecahedrons, forming a Cu2-xS@CuInS2 core-shell intermediate with striped voids in the core region. Optical absorption studies and photoelectrochemical measurements imply that the increase in the hollowing degree of the NCs benefits enhanced light harvesting and separation of photogenerated charge carriers. As a result, the obtained hollow CuInS2 nanododecahedrons present a high activity in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution, much superior to previously reported CuInS2 photocatalysts with different architectures. We envision that the multifarious morphologies attainable for the Cu2-xS NC templates and the advantages of Cu+ for cation exchange can make this method adaptable to a vast variety of previously intractable structures and compositions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuemei Li
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Jia Liu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Xinyuan Li
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Xiaodong Wan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Rongrong Pan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Hongpan Rong
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Jiajia Liu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Wenxing Chen
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
| | - Jiatao Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beijing Institute of Technology , Beijing 100081 , China
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24
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Ahmad S, Sadhanala A, Hoye RLZ, Andrei V, Modarres MH, Zhao B, Rongé J, Friend R, De Volder M. Triple-Cation-Based Perovskite Photocathodes with AZO Protective Layer for Hydrogen Production Applications. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:23198-23206. [PMID: 31252465 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b04963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Metal halide perovskites are actively pursued as photoelectrodes to drive solar fuel synthesis. However, currently, these photocathodes suffer from limited stability in water, which hampers their practical application. Here, we report a high-performance solution-processable photocathode composed of cesium formamidinium methylammonium triple-cation lead halide perovskite protected by an Al-doped ZnO (AZO) layer combined with a Field's metal encapsulation. Careful selection of charge transport layers resulted in an improvement in photocurrent, fill factor, device stability and reproducibility. The dead pixels count reduced from 25 to 6% for the devices with an AZO layer, and in photocathodes with an AZO layer the photocurrent density increased by almost 20% to 14.3 mA cm-2. In addition, we observed a 5-fold increase in the device lifetime for photocathodes with AZO, which reached up to 18 h before complete failure. Finally, the photocathodes are fabricated using low-cost and scalable methods, which have promise to become compatible with standard solution-based processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahab Ahmad
- Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology , Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University) , New Delhi 110025 , India
- Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering , University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0FS , United Kingdom
| | - Aditya Sadhanala
- Cavendish Laboratory , University of Cambridge , JJ Thomson Avenue , Cambridge CB3 0HE , United Kingdom
| | - Robert L Z Hoye
- Cavendish Laboratory , University of Cambridge , JJ Thomson Avenue , Cambridge CB3 0HE , United Kingdom
| | - Virgil Andrei
- Department of Chemistry , University of Cambridge , Lensfield Road , Cambridge CB2 1EW , United Kingdom
| | - Mohammad Hadi Modarres
- Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering , University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0FS , United Kingdom
| | - Baodan Zhao
- Cavendish Laboratory , University of Cambridge , JJ Thomson Avenue , Cambridge CB3 0HE , United Kingdom
| | - Jan Rongé
- Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis , KU Leuven , Leuven B-3001 , Belgium
| | - Richard Friend
- Cavendish Laboratory , University of Cambridge , JJ Thomson Avenue , Cambridge CB3 0HE , United Kingdom
| | - Michael De Volder
- Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering , University of Cambridge , Cambridge CB3 0FS , United Kingdom
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25
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Abstract
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells for solar-energy conversion have received immense interest as a promising technology for renewable hydrogen production. Their similarity to natural photosynthesis, utilizing sunlight and water, has provoked intense research for over half a century. Among many potential photocatalysts, BiVO4 , with a bandgap of 2.4-2.5 eV, has emerged as a highly promising photoanode material with a good chemical stability, environmental inertness, and low cost. Unfortunately, its charge transport properties are modest, at most a hole diffusion length (Lp ) of ≈70 nm. However, recent rapid developments in multiple modification strategies have elevated it to a position as the most promising metal oxide photoanode material. This review summarizes developments in BiVO4 photoanodes in the past 10 years, in which time it has continuously broken its own performance records for PEC water oxidation. Effective modification techniques are discussed, including synthesis of nanostructures/nanopores, external/internal doping, heterojunction fabrication, surface passivation, and cocatalysts. Tandem systems for unassisted solar water splitting and PEC production of value-added chemicals are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Hyun Kim
- Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae Sung Lee
- Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea
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26
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Natarajan K, Gupta AK, Ansari SN, Saraf M, Mobin SM. Mixed-Ligand-Architected 2D Co(II)-MOF Expressing a Novel Topology for an Efficient Photoanode for Water Oxidation Using Visible Light. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:13295-13303. [PMID: 30888790 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b01754] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The structural diversity of Co(II) metal centers is known to influence their physicochemical properties. A novel two-dimensional (2D) Co(II)-MOF {[Co5(HL)4(dpp)2(H2O)2(μ-OH)2]·21H2O} n has been designed and synthesized by adopting a mixed-ligand strategy, using 1,3-di(4-pyridyl)propane (dpp) colinker with a flexible spacer H3L (H3L: 5-(2 carboxybenzyloxy)isophthalic acid). Co(II)-MOF features a 2D network, which is further interpenetrated among the equivalent sets and therefore results in a 3D supramolecular network. Topologically, the entire network can be viewed as a (3,4,8)-connected three-nodal net with the extended point symbol of {4.5.7}4{412.52.710.94}{52.8.92.10}2, duly assigned to the novel topological type smm2. The functional utility of Co(II)-MOF is demonstrated by employing it toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in a photoelectrochemical cell, exhibiting appreciable photocurrents of up to 5.89 mA/cm2 when used as an anode in a photoelectrochemical cell, while also displaying encouraging electrocatalytic currents of 9.32 mA/cm2 (at 2.01 V vs RHE) for the OER. Moreover, detailed electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies confirm enhanced charge-transfer kinetics and improved conductivity under illumination with minimal effect of interfacial phenomena. This work provides a reference for the expanding field of research into applications of MOF materials and establishes MOF materials as favorable candidates for sustainable and efficient design of electrodes for water splitting.
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27
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Zhang FQ, Hu Y, Sun RN, Fu H, Peng KQ. Gold-Sensitized Silicon/ZnO Core/Shell Nanowire Array for Solar Water Splitting. Front Chem 2019; 7:206. [PMID: 31001523 PMCID: PMC6456691 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Solar water splitting represents one of the most promising strategies in the quest for clean and renewable energy. However, low conversion efficiency, use of sacrificial agents, and external bias for current water splitting system limit its practical application. Here, a gold-sensitized Si/ZnOcore/shell nanowire photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell is reported for efficient solar water oxidation. We demonstrated gold-sensitized n-Si/n-ZnO nanowire arrays exhibited higher energy conversion efficiency than gold-sensitized p-Si/n-ZnO nanowire arrays due to the favorable energy-band alignment characteristics. Without any assistance from an external electrical source and sacrificial reagents, gold-sensitized n-Si/n-ZnO core/shell nanowire array photoanode achieved unbiased water splitting under simulated solar light illumination. This method opens a promising venue to cost-efficient production of solar fuels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fu-Qiang Zhang
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Ya Hu
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Rui-Nan Sun
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Haoxin Fu
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Kui-Qing Peng
- Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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28
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Zhou Z, Wu S, Li L, Li L, Li X. Regulating the Silicon/Hematite Microwire Photoanode by the Conformal Al 2O 3 Intermediate Layer for Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2019; 11:5978-5988. [PMID: 30657304 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b18681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Dual-absorber photoelectrodes have been proved to possess greater potential than the single-absorber systems in the applications of photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells (e.g., solar-driven water splitting); however, the mismatching of the energy bands and substantial carrier recombinations at the two absorber interfaces are normally subsistent. Here, we introduce an intermediate layer of conformal Al2O3 into the silicon/hematite (Si/α-Fe2O3) microwire photoanode for enriching the understanding of the interaction among the interlayer, inner absorber, and outer absorber. Our results show that the Si/Al2O3/α-Fe2O3 microwire photoanode with the thickness-optimized Al2O3 can lead to a substantial increase in the photocurrent from 0.83 to 2.08 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE (under 1 sun irradiation) and an obvious decrease in the onset potential relative to the counterpart without Al2O3. By analyzing the PEC responses under various monochromatic lights, PEC impedance spectroscopy, and intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy, we ascribe the improvements to the fact that the suitable-thickness Al2O3 can passivate the Si microwire surfaces and the bottom surfaces of the α-Fe2O3 film and give rise to Al doping into the post-synthesized α-Fe2O3. These essential causes promote the carrier separation in α-Fe2O3, diminish the photoanode surface recombination rate, and then increase the surface charge-transfer efficiency.
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29
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Guo B, Tian L, Xie W, Batool A, Xie G, Xiang Q, Jan SU, Boddula R, Gong JR. Vertically Aligned Porous Organic Semiconductor Nanorod Array Photoanodes for Efficient Charge Utilization. Nano Lett 2018; 18:5954-5960. [PMID: 30102049 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b02740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Because of inefficient charge utilization caused by localized π-electron conjugation and large exciton binding energy, the photoelectrochemical water-splitting efficiency of organic polymers is seriously limited. Taking the graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) polymer as an example, we report a novel photoanode based on a vertically aligned g-CN porous nanorod (PNR) array prepared in situ, using a thermal polycondensation approach, with anodic aluminum oxide as the template. The g-CN PNR array exhibits an excellent photocurrent density of 120.5 μA cm-2 at 1.23 VRHE under one sun illumination, the highest reported incident photon-to-current efficiency of ∼15% at 360 nm, and an outstanding oxygen evolution reaction stability in 0.1 M Na2SO4 aqueous solution, which constitutes a benchmark performance among the reported g-CN-based polymer photoanodes without any sacrificial reagents. When compared with its planar counterpart, the enhanced performance of the PNR array results principally from its unique structure that enables a high degree of aromatic ring π-electron conjugation for higher mobility of charge carriers, provides a direct pathway for the electron transport to the substrate, produces a large portion of hole-accepting defect sites and space charge region to promote exciton dissociation, and also withstands more strain at the interface to ensure intimate contact with the substrate. This work opens a new avenue to develop nanostructured organic semiconductors for large-scale application of solar energy conversion devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beidou Guo
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China
| | - Liangqiu Tian
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China
| | - Wenjing Xie
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
| | - Aisha Batool
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China
| | - Guancai Xie
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China
| | - Qin Xiang
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
| | - Saad Ullah Jan
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
- University of CAS , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China
| | - Rajender Boddula
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
| | - Jian Ru Gong
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchy Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience , National Center for Nanoscience and Technology , Beijing 100190 , People's Republic of China
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30
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Kumari S, Gutkowski R, Junqueira JRC, Kostka A, Hengge K, Scheu C, Schuhmann W, Ludwig A. Combinatorial Synthesis and High-Throughput Characterization of Fe-V-O Thin-Film Materials Libraries for Solar Water Splitting. ACS Comb Sci 2018; 20:544-553. [PMID: 30102852 DOI: 10.1021/acscombsci.8b00030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The search for suitable materials for solar water splitting is addressed with combinatorial material science methods. Thin film Fe-V-O materials libraries were synthesized using combinatorial reactive magnetron cosputtering and subsequent annealing in air. The design of the libraries comprises a combination of large compositional gradients (from Fe10V90O x to Fe79V21O x) and thickness gradients (from 140 to 425 nm). These material libraries were investigated by high-throughput characterization techniques in terms of composition, structure, optical, and photoelectrochemical properties to establish correlations between composition, thickness, crystallinity, microstructure, and photocurrent density. Results show the presence of the Fe2V4O13 phase from ∼11 to 42 at. % Fe (toward low-Fe region) and the FeVO4 phase from ∼37 to 79 at. % Fe (toward Fe-rich region). However, as a third phase, Fe2O3 is present throughout the compositional gradients (from low-Fe to Fe-rich region). Material compositions with increasing crystallinity of the FeVO4 phase show enhanced photocurrent densities (∼160 to 190 μA/cm2) throughout the thickness gradients whereas compositions with the Fe2V4O13 phase show comparatively low photocurrent densities (∼28 μA/cm2). The band gap energies of Fe-V-O films were inferred from Tauc plots. The highest photocurrent density of ∼190 μA/cm2 was obtained for films with ∼54 to 66 at. % Fe for the FeVO4 phase with ∼2.04 eV for the indirect and ∼2.80 eV for the direct band gap energies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swati Kumari
- Chair for MEMS Materials, Institute for Materials, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Ramona Gutkowski
- Analytical Chemistry—Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - João R. C. Junqueira
- Analytical Chemistry—Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Aleksander Kostka
- Center for Interface-Dominated High-Performance Materials (ZGH), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum Germany
| | - Katharina Hengge
- Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck Straße 1, D-40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Christina Scheu
- Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck Straße 1, D-40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Wolfgang Schuhmann
- Analytical Chemistry—Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
- Materials Research Department, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Alfred Ludwig
- Chair for MEMS Materials, Institute for Materials, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
- Center for Interface-Dominated High-Performance Materials (ZGH), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum Germany
- Materials Research Department, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
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31
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Kim YJ, Lee GJ, Kim S, Min JW, Jeong SY, Yoo YJ, Lee S, Song YM. Efficient Light Absorption by GaN Truncated Nanocones for High Performance Water Splitting Applications. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018; 10:28672-28678. [PMID: 30086634 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b09084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Despite the importance of gallium nitride (GaN) nanostructures for photocatalytic activity, relatively little attention has been paid to their geometrical optimization on the basis of wave optics. In this study, we present GaN truncated nanocones to provide a strategy for improving solar water splitting efficiencies, compared to the efficiency provided by the conventional geometries (i.e., flat surface, cylindrical, and cone shapes). Computational results with a finite difference time domain (FDTD) method and a rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) reveal important aspects of truncated nanocones, which effectively concentrate light in the center of the nanostructures. The introduction of nanostructures is highly recommended to address the strong light reflection of photocatalytic materials and carrier lifetime issues. To fabricate the truncated nanocones at low cost and with large-area, a dry etching method was employed with thermally dewetted metal nanoparticles, which enables controllability of desired features on a wafer scale. Experimental results exhibit that the photocurrent density of truncated nanocones is improved about three times higher compared to that of planar GaN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yeong Jae Kim
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
| | - Gil Ju Lee
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
| | - Seungkyu Kim
- School of Materials Science and Engineering , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
| | - Jung-Wook Min
- Photonics Laboratory , King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal 23955-6900 , Saudi Arabia
| | - Sang Yun Jeong
- School of Materials Science and Engineering , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
| | - Young Jin Yoo
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
| | - Sanghan Lee
- School of Materials Science and Engineering , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
| | - Young Min Song
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology , 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro , Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005 , Republic of Korea
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32
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Chiu YH, Lai TH, Chen CY, Hsieh PY, Ozasa K, Niinomi M, Okada K, Chang TFM, Matsushita N, Sone M, Hsu YJ. Fully Depleted Ti-Nb-Ta-Zr-O Nanotubes: Interfacial Charge Dynamics and Solar Hydrogen Production. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018; 10:22997-23008. [PMID: 29664283 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b00727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Poor kinetics of hole transportation at the electrode/electrolyte interface is regarded as a primary cause for the mediocre performance of n-type TiO2 photoelectrodes. By adopting nanotubes as the electrode backbone, light absorption and carrier collection can be spatially decoupled, allowing n-type TiO2, with its short hole diffusion length, to maximize the use of the available photoexcited charge carriers during operation in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Here, we presented a delicate electrochemical anodization process for the preparation of quaternary Ti-Nb-Ta-Zr-O mixed-oxide (denoted as TNTZO) nanotube arrays and demonstrated their utility in PEC water splitting. The charge-transfer dynamics for the electrodes was investigated using time-resolved photoluminescence, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and the decay of open-circuit voltage analysis. Data reveal that the superior photoactivity of TNTZO over pristine TiO2 originated from the introduction of Nd, Ta, and Zr elements, which enhanced the amount of accessible charge carriers, modified the electronic structure, and improved the hole injection kinetics for expediting water splitting. By modulating the water content of the electrolyte employed in the anodization process, the wall thickness of the grown TNTZO nanotubes can be reduced to a size smaller than that of the depletion layer thickness, realizing a fully depleted state for charge carriers to further advance the PEC performance. Hydrogen evolution tests demonstrate the practical efficacy of TNTZO for realizing solar hydrogen production. Furthermore, with the composition complexity and fully depleted band structure, the present TNTZO nanotube arrays may offer a feasible and universal platform for the loading of other semiconductors to construct a sophisticated heterostructure photoelectrode paradigm, in which the photoexcited charge carriers can be entirely utilized for efficient solar-to-fuel conversion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Hsuan Chiu
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
- Institute of Innovative Research , Tokyo Institute of Technology , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
| | - Ting-Hsuan Lai
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
| | - Chun-Yi Chen
- Institute of Innovative Research , Tokyo Institute of Technology , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
- CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
| | - Ping-Yen Hsieh
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
| | - Kazunari Ozasa
- Bioengineering Lab, RIKEN , 2-1 Hirosawa , Wako, Saitama 351-0198 , Japan
| | - Mitsuo Niinomi
- Institute for Materials Research , Tohoku University , 2-1-1 Katahira , Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577 , Japan
| | - Kiyoshi Okada
- Institute of Innovative Research , Tokyo Institute of Technology , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
| | - Tso-Fu Mark Chang
- Institute of Innovative Research , Tokyo Institute of Technology , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
- CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
| | - Nobuhiro Matsushita
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering , Tokyo Institute of Technology , 2-12-1 Ookayama , Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552 , Japan
| | - Masato Sone
- Institute of Innovative Research , Tokyo Institute of Technology , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
- CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency , 4259 Nagatsuta-cho , Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503 , Japan
| | - Yung-Jung Hsu
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering , National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010 , Taiwan
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Nguyen LN, Thuy UTD, Truong QD, Honma I, Nguyen QL, Tran PD. Electrodeposited Amorphous Tungsten-doped Cobalt Oxide as an Efficient Catalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Chem Asian J 2018; 13:1530-1534. [PMID: 29708656 DOI: 10.1002/asia.201800401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Revised: 04/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Thin film of amorphous tungsten-doped cobalt oxide (W:CoO) was successfully grown on a conducting electrode via an electrochemical oxidation process employing a [Co(WS4 )2 ]2- deposition bath. The W:CoO catalyst displays an attractive performance for the oxygen evolution reaction in an alkaline solution. In an NaOH solution of pH 13, W:CoO operates with a moderate onset overpotential of 230 mV and requires 320 mV overpotential to generate a catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2 . A low Tafel slope of 45 mV decade-1 was determined, indicating a rapid O2 -evolving kinetics. The as-prepared W:CoO belongs to the best cobalt oxide-based catalysts ever reported for the oxygen evolution (OER) reaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linh N Nguyen
- Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, 100000, Hanoi, Vietnam.,University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, 100000, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Ung Thi Dieu Thuy
- Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, 100000, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Quang Duc Truong
- Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoky University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan
| | - Itaru Honma
- Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoky University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan
| | - Quang Liem Nguyen
- Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, 100000, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Phong D Tran
- University of Science and Technology of Hanoi, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, 100000, Hanoi, Vietnam.,Department of Chemistry, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04763, Republic of Korea
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Kwon J, Cho H, Jung J, Lee H, Hong S, Yeo J, Han S, Ko SH. ZnO/CuO/M (M = Ag, Au) Hierarchical Nanostructure by Successive Photoreduction Process for Solar Hydrogen Generation. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2018; 8:nano8050323. [PMID: 29757225 PMCID: PMC5977337 DOI: 10.3390/nano8050323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2018] [Revised: 05/10/2018] [Accepted: 05/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
To date, solar energy generation devices have been widely studied to meet a clean and sustainable energy source. Among them, water splitting photoelectrochemical cell is regarded as a promising energy generation way for splitting water molecules and generating hydrogen by sunlight. While many nanostructured metal oxides are considered as a candidate, most of them have an improper bandgap structure lowering energy transition efficiency. Herein, we introduce a novel wet-based, successive photoreduction process that can improve charge transfer efficiency by surface plasmon effect for a solar-driven water splitting device. The proposed process enables to fabricate ZnO/CuO/Ag or ZnO/CuO/Au hierarchical nanostructure, having an enhanced electrical, optical, photoelectrochemical property. The fabricated hierarchical nanostructures are demonstrated as a photocathode in the photoelectrochemical cell and characterized by using various analytic tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinhyeong Kwon
- Applied Nano and Thermal Science Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
| | - Hyunmin Cho
- Applied Nano and Thermal Science Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
| | - Jinwook Jung
- Applied Nano and Thermal Science Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
| | - Habeom Lee
- Applied Nano and Thermal Science Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
| | - Sukjoon Hong
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, 55 Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan Gyeonggi-do 15588, Korea.
| | - Junyeob Yeo
- Novel Applied Nano Optics (NANO) Lab, Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Bukgu, Daegu 41566, Korea.
| | - Seungyong Han
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ajou University, 206 Worldcupro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 16499, Korea.
| | - Seung Hwan Ko
- Applied Nano and Thermal Science Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
- Department of Mechanical Engineering/Institute of Advanced Machinery and Design (SNU-IAMD), Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.
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Liu Y, Wygant BR, Mabayoje O, Lin J, Kawashima K, Kim JH, Li W, Li J, Mullins CB. Interface Engineering and its Effect on WO 3-Based Photoanode and Tandem Cell. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018; 10:12639-12650. [PMID: 29608854 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b00304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
During photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, the reactions occur on the surface of the photoelectrode. Therefore, the properties of the interfaces between the various components of the electrode (semiconductor/semiconductor, semiconductor/catalyst, or photoelectrode/electrolyte) affect the PEC performance of the composite material. Notably, surface trap states may hinder charge transfer and transport properties, and also cause Fermi pinning, affecting the quasi-Fermi level and onset potential under illumination, which may in turn influence the PEC performance of the corresponding tandem cells. In this study, plate-like WO3 array films prepared by an aqueous chemical growth method were employed to highlight the effect of interfacial properties on the performance of a WO3-based photoanode. The Mott-Schottky and linear sweep voltammetry experiments prove the existence of surface trap states and Fermi pinning for pristine WO3, which are alleviated after an "etching" treatment and disappeared after surface passivation by a Ga2O3 layer. Both etching and passivation increase the oxygen evolution activity and the Faradaic efficiency for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). After loading a permeable catalyst (FeOOH), the photocurrent is further increased, and there is a synergistic effect between loading of the electrocatalyst with etching or passivation. The onset potentials of the samples follow the trends: etch-WO3/FeOOH < WO3/FeOOH ≤ WO3/Ga2O3/FeOOH < etch-WO3 < WO3 < WO3/Ga2O3, indicating that the interfacial properties have a significant effect on the PEC performance. Meanwhile, the modified WO3-based electrode was combined with a dye-sensitized solar cell to fabricate tandem cell, which showed 2.42-fold photocurrent density compared with the pristine WO3-based tandem cell.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Liu
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering , Central South University , Changsha 410083 , China
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
| | - Bryan R Wygant
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
| | - Oluwaniyi Mabayoje
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
| | - Jie Lin
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
- Pen-Tung Sah Micro-Nano Science and Technology Institute , Xiamen University , Xiamen , Fujian 361005 , China
| | - Kenta Kawashima
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
| | - Jun-Hyuk Kim
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
| | - Wenzhang Li
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering , Central South University , Changsha 410083 , China
| | - Jie Li
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering , Central South University , Changsha 410083 , China
| | - C Buddie Mullins
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry , University of Texas at Austin , Austin , Texas 78712-0231 , United States
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Lin H, Long X, Hu J, Qiu Y, Wang Z, Ma M, An Y, Yang S. Exploratory Study of Zn xPbO y Photoelectrodes for Unassisted Overall Solar Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018; 10:10918-10926. [PMID: 29578676 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b00421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
A complete photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting system requires a photocathode and a photoanode to host water oxidation and reduction reactions, respectively. It is thus important to search for efficient photoelectrodes capable of full water splitting. Herein, we report on an exploratory study of a new photoelectrode family of Zn xPbO y-ZnPbO3 and Zn2PbO4-similarly synthesized by a simple and economical method and shown to be a promising photocathode (p-type semiconductor) and photoanode (n-type semiconductor), respectively. From PEC measurements, the bare ZnPbO3 photocathode achieved a photocurrent density of -0.94 mA/cm2 at 0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), whereas the pristine Zn2PbO4 photoanode delivered a photocurrent density of 0.51 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V versus RHE. By depositing suitable cocatalysts onto the photoelectrodes established above, we also demonstrated unassisted overall PEC water splitting, a rare case, if any, wherein a single material system is compositionally engineered for either of the photoelectrodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- He Lin
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
| | - Xia Long
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
- Guangdong Key Lab of Nano-Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School , Peking University , Shenzhen 518055 , China
| | - Jue Hu
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
| | - Yongcai Qiu
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
- Guangdong Key Lab of Nano-Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School , Peking University , Shenzhen 518055 , China
| | - Zilong Wang
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
| | - Ming Ma
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
| | - Yiming An
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
| | - Shihe Yang
- Department of Chemistry , The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong , China
- Guangdong Key Lab of Nano-Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School , Peking University , Shenzhen 518055 , China
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37
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Xie Y, Ju Y, Toku Y, Morita Y. Synthesis of a single-crystal Fe 2O 3 nanowire array based on stress-induced atomic diffusion used for solar water splitting. R Soc Open Sci 2018; 5:172126. [PMID: 29657806 PMCID: PMC5882730 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.172126] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2017] [Accepted: 02/09/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
In this study, we successfully fabricated a single-crystal Fe2O3 nanowire array based on stress-induced atomic diffusion and used this array as the photoelectrode for solar water splitting. With the surface polishing treatment on the sample surface, the density of the Fe2O3 nanowire array reached up to 28.75 wire µm-2 when heated for 90 min at 600°C. The photocurrent density of the optimized sample was 0.9 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode in a three-electrode system under AM 1.5 G illumination. The incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency was 6.8% at 400 nm.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yang Ju
- Author for correspondence: Yang Ju e-mail:
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Yang C, Xi X, Yu Z, Cao H, Li J, Lin S, Ma Z, Zhao L. Light Modulation and Water Splitting Enhancement Using a Composite Porous GaN Structure. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2018; 10:5492-5497. [PMID: 29350908 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b15344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
On the basis of the laterally porous GaN, we designed and fabricated a composite porous GaN structure with both well-ordered lateral and vertical holes. Compared to the plane GaN, the composite porous GaN structure with the combination of the vertical holes can help to reduce UV reflectance and increase the saturation photocurrent during water splitting by a factor of ∼4.5. Furthermore, we investigated the underlying mechanism for the enhancement of the water splitting performance using a finite-difference time-domain method. The results show that the well-ordered vertical holes can not only help to open the embedded pore channels to the electrolyte at both sides and reduce the migration distance of the gas bubbles during the water splitting reactions but also help to modulate the light field. Using this composite porous GaN structure, most of the incident light can be modulated and trapped into the nanoholes, and thus the electric fields localized in the lateral pores can increase dramatically as a result of the strong optical coupling. Our findings pave a new way to develop GaN photoelectrodes for highly efficient solar water splitting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chao Yang
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Xin Xi
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Zhiguo Yu
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Haicheng Cao
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Jing Li
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Shan Lin
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Zhanhong Ma
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Lixia Zhao
- Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. A35, Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
- College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19A, Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China
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Rajagopal A, Yang Z, Jo SB, Braly IL, Liang PW, Hillhouse HW, Jen AKY. Highly Efficient Perovskite-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells Reaching 80% of the Theoretical Limit in Photovoltage. Adv Mater 2017; 29. [PMID: 28692764 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201702140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2017] [Revised: 05/24/2017] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite multijunction solar cells have immense potential to realize power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit of single-junction solar cells; however, they are limited by large nonideal photovoltage loss (V oc,loss ) in small- and large-bandgap subcells. Here, an integrated approach is utilized to improve the V oc of subcells with optimized bandgaps and fabricate perovskite-perovskite tandem solar cells with small V oc,loss . A fullerene variant, Indene-C60 bis-adduct, is used to achieve optimized interfacial contact in a small-bandgap (≈1.2 eV) subcell, which facilitates higher quasi-Fermi level splitting, reduces nonradiative recombination, alleviates hysteresis instabilities, and improves V oc to 0.84 V. Compositional engineering of large-bandgap (≈1.8 eV) perovskite is employed to realize a subcell with a transparent top electrode and photostabilized V oc of 1.22 V. The resultant monolithic perovskite-perovskite tandem solar cell shows a high V oc of 1.98 V (approaching 80% of the theoretical limit) and a stabilized PCE of 18.5%. The significantly minimized nonideal V oc,loss is better than state-of-the-art silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells, which highlights the prospects of using perovskite-perovskite tandems for solar-energy generation. It also unlocks opportunities for solar water splitting using hybrid perovskites with solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies beyond 15%.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adharsh Rajagopal
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Zhibin Yang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Sae Byeok Jo
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Ian L Braly
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Po-Wei Liang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Hugh W Hillhouse
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Alex K-Y Jen
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
- Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Kowloon, Hong Kong
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40
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Kim S, Kim T, Lee S, Baek S, Park T, Yong K. A Highly Versatile and Adaptable Artificial Leaf with Floatability and Planar Compact Design Applicable in Various Natural Environments. Adv Mater 2017; 29. [PMID: 28714231 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201702431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2017] [Revised: 06/09/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
As a promising means of solar energy conversion, photovoltaic (PV) cell-based electrolysis has recently drawn considerable attention for its effective solar fuel generation; especially the generation of hydrogen by solar water splitting. Inspired by remarkable accomplishments in enhancing the solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency, various efforts have aimed at fostering convenient and practical uses of PV electrolysis to make this technology ubiquitous, manageable, and efficient. Here, the design and function of a monolithic photoelectrolysis system-a so-called artificial leaf-for use in various environments are highlighted. The uniquely designed artificial-leaf system facilitates an unbiased water-splitting reaction by combining superstrate PV cells in series with single-face electrodes in a compact 2D catalytic configuration. Floatability is a new feature of the water-splitting artificial leaf; this feature maximizes solar light utilization and allows for easy retrieval for recycling. Additionally, its planar design enables operation of the device in water-scarce conditions. These characteristics endow the artificial leaf with versatility and a high adaptability to natural environments, widening the applicability of the device.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sangkuk Kim
- Surface Chemistry Laboratory of Electronic Materials, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Korea
| | - Taewan Kim
- Polymer Chemistry and Electronics Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Korea
| | - Seunghyup Lee
- Electronic Convergence Materials Division, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET), Jinju, 52851, Korea
| | - Seunghyeon Baek
- Surface Chemistry Laboratory of Electronic Materials, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Korea
| | - Taiho Park
- Polymer Chemistry and Electronics Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Korea
| | - Kijung Yong
- Surface Chemistry Laboratory of Electronic Materials, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Korea
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Chae SY, Lee CS, Jung H, Joo OS, Min BK, Kim JH, Hwang YJ. Insight into Charge Separation in WO 3/BiVO 4 Heterojunction for Solar Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2017; 9:19780-19790. [PMID: 28530789 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b02486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Recently, the WO3/BiVO4 heterojunction has shown promising photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting activity based on its charge transfer and light absorption capability, and notable enhancement of the photocurrent has been achieved via morphological modification of WO3. We developed a graft copolymer-assisted protocol for the synthesis of WO3 mesoporous thin films on a transparent conducting electrode, wherein the particle size, particle shape, and thickness of the WO3 layer were controlled by tuning the interactions in the polymer/sol-gel hybrid. The PEC performance of the WO3 mesoporous photoanodes with various morphologies and the individual heterojunctions with BiVO4 (WO3/BiVO4) were characterized by measuring the photocurrents in the absence/presence of hole scavengers using light absorption spectroscopy and intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy. The morphology of the WO3 photoanode directly influenced the charge separation efficiency within the WO3 layer and concomitant charge collection efficiency in the WO3/BiVO4 heterojunction, showing the smaller sized nanosphere WO3 layer showed higher values than did the plate-like or rod-like one. Notably, we observed that photocurrent density of WO3/BiVO4 was not dependent on the thickness of WO3 film or its charge collection time, implying slow charge flow from BiVO4 to WO3 can be a crucial issue in determining the photocurrent, rather than the charge separation within the nanosphere WO3 layer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sang Youn Chae
- Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
| | - Chang Soo Lee
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University , Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyejin Jung
- Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
- Korea University of Science and Technology , Daejeon 34113, Republic of Korea
| | - Oh-Shim Joo
- Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
- Korea University of Science and Technology , Daejeon 34113, Republic of Korea
| | - Byoung Koun Min
- Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
| | - Jong Hak Kim
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University , Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
| | - Yun Jeong Hwang
- Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology , Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
- Korea University of Science and Technology , Daejeon 34113, Republic of Korea
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42
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Pichler M, Szlachetko J, Castelli IE, Marzari N, Döbeli M, Wokaun A, Pergolesi D, Lippert T. Determination of Conduction and Valence Band Electronic Structure of LaTiO x N y Thin Film. ChemSusChem 2017; 10:2099-2106. [PMID: 28332773 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201601632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2016] [Revised: 02/13/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The nitrogen substitution into the oxygen sites of several oxide materials leads to a reduction of the band gap to the visible-light energy range, which makes these oxynitride semiconductors potential photocatalysts for efficient solar water splitting. Oxynitrides typically show a different crystal structure compared to the pristine oxide material. As the band gap is correlated to both the chemical composition and the crystal structure, it is not trivial to distinguish which modifications of the electronic structure induced by the nitrogen substitution are related to compositional and/or structural effects. Here, X-ray emission and absorption spectroscopy are used to investigate the electronic structures of orthorhombic perovskite LaTiOx Ny thin films in comparison with films of the pristine oxide LaTiOx with similar orthorhombic structure and cationic oxidation state. Experiment and theory show the expected upward shift in energy of the valence band maximum that reduces the band gap as a consequence of the nitrogen incorporation. This study also shows that the conduction band minimum, typically considered almost unaffected by nitrogen substitution, undergoes a significant downward shift in energy. For a rational design of oxynitride photocatalysts, the observed changes of both the unoccupied and occupied electronic states have to be taken into account to justify the total band-gap narrowing induced by the nitrogen incorporation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markus Pichler
- Research with Neutrons and Muons Division, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
| | - Jakub Szlachetko
- Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
- Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland
| | - Ivano E Castelli
- Theory and Simulation of Materials and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicola Marzari
- Theory and Simulation of Materials and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Max Döbeli
- Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Alexander Wokaun
- Research with Neutrons and Muons Division, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
| | - Daniele Pergolesi
- Research with Neutrons and Muons Division, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Lippert
- Research with Neutrons and Muons Division, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
- Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
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43
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Tee SY, Win KY, Teo WS, Koh L, Liu S, Teng CP, Han M. Recent Progress in Energy-Driven Water Splitting. Adv Sci (Weinh) 2017; 4:1600337. [PMID: 28546906 PMCID: PMC5441509 DOI: 10.1002/advs.201600337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 268] [Impact Index Per Article: 38.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2016] [Revised: 09/30/2016] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Hydrogen is readily obtained from renewable and non-renewable resources via water splitting by using thermal, electrical, photonic and biochemical energy. The major hydrogen production is generated from thermal energy through steam reforming/gasification of fossil fuel. As the commonly used non-renewable resources will be depleted in the long run, there is great demand to utilize renewable energy resources for hydrogen production. Most of the renewable resources may be used to produce electricity for driving water splitting while challenges remain to improve cost-effectiveness. As the most abundant energy resource, the direct conversion of solar energy to hydrogen is considered the most sustainable energy production method without causing pollutions to the environment. In overall, this review briefly summarizes thermolytic, electrolytic, photolytic and biolytic water splitting. It highlights photonic and electrical driven water splitting together with photovoltaic-integrated solar-driven water electrolysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Si Yin Tee
- Institute of Materials Research and EngineeringAgency for ScienceTechnology and Research2 Fusionopolis WaySingapore138634
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringNational University of Singapore9 Engineering DriveSingapore117576
| | - Khin Yin Win
- Institute of Materials Research and EngineeringAgency for ScienceTechnology and Research2 Fusionopolis WaySingapore138634
| | - Wee Siang Teo
- School of Material Science and EngineeringNanyang Technological UniversitySingapore639798
| | - Leng‐Duei Koh
- Institute of Materials Research and EngineeringAgency for ScienceTechnology and Research2 Fusionopolis WaySingapore138634
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringNational University of Singapore9 Engineering DriveSingapore117576
| | - Shuhua Liu
- Institute of Materials Research and EngineeringAgency for ScienceTechnology and Research2 Fusionopolis WaySingapore138634
| | - Choon Peng Teng
- Institute of Materials Research and EngineeringAgency for ScienceTechnology and Research2 Fusionopolis WaySingapore138634
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringNational University of Singapore9 Engineering DriveSingapore117576
| | - Ming‐Yong Han
- Institute of Materials Research and EngineeringAgency for ScienceTechnology and Research2 Fusionopolis WaySingapore138634
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringNational University of Singapore9 Engineering DriveSingapore117576
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44
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Schipper DE, Zhao Z, Leitner AP, Xie L, Qin F, Alam MK, Chen S, Wang D, Ren Z, Wang Z, Bao J, Whitmire KH. A TiO 2/FeMnP Core/Shell Nanorod Array Photoanode for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Oxygen Evolution. ACS Nano 2017; 11:4051-4059. [PMID: 28333437 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b00704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
A variety of catalysts have recently been developed for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution, but very few of them can be readily integrated with semiconducting light absorbers for photoelectrochemical or photocatalytic water splitting. Here, we demonstrate an efficient core/shell photoanode with a highly active oxygen evolution electrocatalyst shell (FeMnP) and semiconductor core (rutile TiO2) for photoelectrochemical oxygen evolution reaction. Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition from a single-source precursor was used to ensure good contact between the FeMnP and the TiO2. The TiO2/FeMnP core/shell photoanode reaches the theoretical photocurrent density for rutile TiO2 of 1.8 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode under simulated 100 mW cm-2 (1 sun) irradiation. The dramatic enhancement is a result of the synergistic effects of the high oxygen evolution reaction activity of FeMnP (delivering an overpotential of 300 mV with a Tafel slope of 65 mV dec-1 in 1 M KOH) and the conductive interlayer between the surface active sites and semiconductor core which boosts the interfacial charge transfer and photocarrier collection. The facile fabrication of the TiO2/FeMnP core/shell nanorod array photoanode offers a compelling strategy for preparing highly efficient photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Desmond E Schipper
- Department of Chemistry, MS60, Rice University , 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
| | - Zhenhuan Zhao
- Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China , Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Andrew P Leitner
- Department of Chemistry, MS60, Rice University , 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Zhiming Wang
- Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China , Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Jiming Bao
- Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China , Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Kenton H Whitmire
- Department of Chemistry, MS60, Rice University , 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, United States
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Abstract
Transients in the composition of Ni@NiO x core-shell co-catalysts deposited on SrTiO3 are discussed on the basis of state-of-the-art continuous analysis of photocatalytic water splitting, and post-XPS and TEM analyses. The formation of excessive hydrogen (H2:O2 ≫ 2) in the initial stages of illumination demonstrates oxidation of Ni(OH)2 to NiOOH (nickel oxyhydroxide), with the latter catalyzing water oxidation. A disproportionation reaction of Ni and NiOOH, yielding Ni(OH)2 with residual embedded Ni, occurs when illumination is discontinued, which explains repetitive transients in (excess) hydrogen and oxygen formation when illumination is reinitiated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Han
- Photocatalytic
Synthesis
Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Faculty of Science and
Technology, University of Twente, Meander 229, P.O.
Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Tomas Kreuger
- Photocatalytic
Synthesis
Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Faculty of Science and
Technology, University of Twente, Meander 229, P.O.
Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Bastian Mei
- Photocatalytic
Synthesis
Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Faculty of Science and
Technology, University of Twente, Meander 229, P.O.
Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - Guido Mul
- Photocatalytic
Synthesis
Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, Faculty of Science and
Technology, University of Twente, Meander 229, P.O.
Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
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Koo B, Nam SW, Haight R, Kim S, Oh S, Cho M, Oh J, Lee JY, Ahn BT, Shin B. Tailoring Photoelectrochemical Performance and Stability of Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 Photocathode via TiO 2-Coupled Buffer Layers. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2017; 9:5279-5287. [PMID: 28124554 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b15168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
We report on the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance and stability of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS)-based photocathodes for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water. Various functional overlayers, such as CdS, TiO2, ZnxSnyOz, and a combination of the aforementioned, were applied on the CIGS to improve the performance and stability. We identified that the insertion of TiO2 overlayer on p-CIGS/n-buffer layers significantly improves the PEC performance. A multilayered photocathode consisting of CIGS/CdS/TiO2/Pt exhibited the best current-potential characteristics among the tested photocathodes, which demonstrates a power-saved efficiency of 2.63%. However, repeated linear sweep voltammetry resulted in degradation of performance. In this regard, we focused on the PEC durability issues through in-depth chemical characterization that revealed the degradation was attributed to atomic redistribution of elements constituting the photocathode, namely, in-diffusion of Pt catalysts, out-diffusion of elements from the CIGS, and removal of the metal-oxide layers; the best-performing CIGS/CdS/TiO2/Pt photocathode retained its initial performance until the TiO2 overlayer was removed. It was also found that the durability of CIGS photocathodes with a TiO2-coated metal-oxide buffer layer such as ZnxSnyOz was better than those with a TiO2-coated CdS, and the degradation mechanism was different, suggesting that the stability of a CIGS-based photocathode can be improved by careful design of the structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bonhyeong Koo
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Sung-Wook Nam
- Center for Nanomaterials and Chemical Reactions (CNCR), Institute for Basic Science (IBS) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
- Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University , Daegu 41404, Republic of Korea
| | - Richard Haight
- IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, United States
| | - Suncheul Kim
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Seungtaeg Oh
- Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water, and Sustainability (EEWS), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Minhyung Cho
- Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water, and Sustainability (EEWS), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Jihun Oh
- Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water, and Sustainability (EEWS), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Jeong Yong Lee
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
- Center for Nanomaterials and Chemical Reactions (CNCR), Institute for Basic Science (IBS) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Byung Tae Ahn
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Byungha Shin
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) , Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
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Lee TH, Kim SY, Jang HW. Black Phosphorus: Critical Review and Potential for Water Splitting Photocatalyst. Nanomaterials (Basel) 2016; 6:nano6110194. [PMID: 28335322 PMCID: PMC5245762 DOI: 10.3390/nano6110194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2016] [Revised: 10/17/2016] [Accepted: 10/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
A century after its first synthesis in 1914, black phosphorus has been attracting significant attention as a promising two-dimensional material in recent years due to its unique properties. Nowadays, with the development of its exfoliation method, there are extensive applications of black phosphorus in transistors, batteries and optoelectronics. Though, because of its hardship in mass production and stability problems, the potential of the black phosphorus in various fields is left unexplored. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of crystal structure, electronic, optical properties and synthesis of black phosphorus. Recent research works about the applications of black phosphorus is summarized. Among them, the possibility of black phosphorous as a solar water splitting photocatalyst is mainly discussed and the feasible novel structure of photocatalysts based on black phosphorous is proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tae Hyung Lee
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
| | - Soo Young Kim
- School of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea.
| | - Ho Won Jang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
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48
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Abstract
Due to its abundance, scalability, and nontoxicity, Cu2O has attracted extensive attention toward solar energy conversion, and it is the best performing metal oxide material. Until now, the high efficiency devices are all planar in structure, and their photocurrent densities still fall well below the theoretical value of 14.5 mA cm(-2) due to the incompatible light absorption and charge carrier diffusion lengths. Nanowire structures have been considered as a rational and promising approach to solve this issue, but due to various challenges, performance improvements through the use of nanowires have rarely been achieved. In this work, we develop a new synthetic method to grow Cu2O nanowire arrays on conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates with well-controlled phase and excellent electronic and photonic properties. Also, we introduce an innovative blocking layer strategy to enable high performance. Further, through material engineering by combining a conformal nanoscale p-n junction, durable protective overlayer, and uniform catalyst decoration, we have successfully fabricated Cu2O nanowire array photocathodes for hydrogen generation from solar water splitting delivering unprecedentedly high photocurrent densities of 10 mA cm(-2) and stable operation beyond 50 h, establishing a new benchmark for metal oxide based photoelectrodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingshan Luo
- Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Ludmilla Steier
- Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Min-Kyu Son
- Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marcel Schreier
- Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Matthew T Mayer
- Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Michael Grätzel
- Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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49
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Chen CJ, Yang KC, Basu M, Lu TH, Lu YR, Dong CL, Hu SF, Liu RS. Wide Range pH-Tolerable Silicon@Pyrite Cobalt Dichalcogenide Microwire Array Photoelectrodes for Solar Hydrogen Evolution. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2016; 8:5400-5407. [PMID: 26859427 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b00027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
This study employed silicon@cobalt dichalcogenide microwires (MWs) as wide range pH-tolerable photocathode material for solar water splitting. Silicon microwire arrays were fabricated through lithography and dry etching technologies. Si@Co(OH)2 MWs were utilized as precursors to synthesize Si@CoX2 (X = S or Se) photocathodes. Si@CoS2 and Si@CoSe2 MWs were subsequently prepared by thermal sulfidation and hydrothermal selenization reaction of Si@Co(OH)2, respectively. The CoX2 outer shell served as cocatalyst to accelerate the kinetics of photogenerated electrons from the underlying Si MWs and reduce the recombination. Moreover, the CoX2 layer completely deposited on the Si surface functioned as a passivation layer by decreasing the oxide formation on Si MWs during solar hydrogen evolution. Si@CoS2 photocathode showed a photocurrent density of -3.22 mA cm(-2) at 0 V (vs RHE) in 0.5 M sulfuric acid electrolyte, and Si@CoSe2 MWs revealed moderate photocurrent density of -2.55 mA cm(-2). However, Si@CoSe2 presented high charge transfer efficiency in neutral and alkaline electrolytes. Continuous chronoamperometry in acid, neutral, and alkaline solutions was conducted at 0 V (vs RHE) to evaluate the photoelectrochemical durability of Si@CoX2 MWs. Si@CoS2 electrode showed no photoresponse after the chronoamperometry test because it was etched through the electrolyte. By contrast, the photocurrent density of Si@CoSe2 MWs gradually increased to -5 mA cm(-2) after chronoamperometry characterization owing to the amorphous structure generation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Jung Chen
- Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University , Taipei 10617, Taiwan
| | - Kai-Chih Yang
- Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University , Taipei 11677, Taiwan
| | - Mrinmoyee Basu
- Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University , Taipei 10617, Taiwan
| | - Tzu-Hsiang Lu
- Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University , Taipei 10617, Taiwan
| | - Ying-Rui Lu
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan
- Program for Science and Technology of Accelerator Light Source, National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
| | - Chung-Li Dong
- National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan
- Department of Physics, Tamkang University , Tamsui 25137, Taiwan
| | - Shu-Fen Hu
- Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University , Taipei 11677, Taiwan
| | - Ru-Shi Liu
- Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University , Taipei 10617, Taiwan
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Graduate Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National Taipei University of Technology , Taipei 10608, Taiwan
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50
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Shen L, He C, Qiu J, Lee SM, Kalita A, Cronin SB, Stoykovich MP, Yoon J. Nanostructured Silicon Photocathodes for Solar Water Splitting Patterned by the Self-Assembly of Lamellar Block Copolymers. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2015; 7:26043-26049. [PMID: 26575400 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b08661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
We studied a type of nanostructured silicon photocathode for solar water splitting, where one-dimensionally periodic lamellar nanopatterns derived from the self-assembly of symmetric poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) block copolymers were incorporated on the surface of single-crystalline silicon in configurations with and without a buried metallurgical junction. The resulting nanostructured silicon photocathodes with the characteristic lamellar morphology provided suppressed front-surface reflection and increased surface area, which collectively contributed to the enhanced photocatalytic performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction. The augmented light absorption in the nanostructured silicon directly translated to the increase of the saturation current density, while the onset potential decreased with the etching depth because of the increased levels of surface recombination. The pp(+)-silicon photocathodes, compared to the n(+)pp(+)-silicon with a buried solid-state junction, exhibited a more pronounced shift of the current density-potential curves upon the introduction of the nanostructured surface owing to the corresponding increase in the liquid/silicon junction area. Systematic studies on the morphology, optical properties, and photoelectrochemical characteristics of nanostructured silicon photocathodes, in conjunction with optical modeling based on the finite-difference time-domain method, provide quantitative description and optimal design rules of lamellar-patterned silicon photocathodes for solar water splitting.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Chunlin He
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder , Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
| | | | | | | | | | - Mark P Stoykovich
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder , Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
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