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Unassisted visible solar water splitting with efficient photoelectrodes sensitized by quantum dots synthesized: Via an environmentally friendly eutectic solvent-mediated approach

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ISSN: 2050-7496, Vol: 6, Issue: 45, Page: 22566-22579
2018
  • 30
    Citations
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    Usage
  • 37
    Captures
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    Mentions
  • 282
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    30
    • Citation Indexes
      30
  • Captures
    37
  • Social Media
    282
    • Shares, Likes & Comments
      282
      • Facebook
        282

Article Description

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) based on choline chloride/ethylene glycol have been explored as synthetic media for recently introduced Cu-Sb-S based colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) decorated on NiO/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and TiO/FTO photoelectrodes for unassisted solar water splitting for hydrogen generation. The feasibility of the use of an environmentally benign solvent-based synthetic process is demonstrated herein by preparing the earth-abundant Cu-Sb-S-based CQDs and utilizing them in a solar energy harvesting material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting while avoiding the use of sacrificial agents. The band alignment between CQDs and NiO or TiO clearly suggests that the CQD-modified NiO and TiO electrodes act as a potential photocathode (NiO/CuSbS/ZnS) and photoanode (TiO/CuSbS/ZnS) with faradaic efficiencies of up to 74 and 86%, respectively, which allows us to construct an efficient PEC cell to split water at an overall solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency of ∼0.28%. The tandem photoelectrode configuration in an unassisted mode of solar-driven water splitting based on a wire-linked system shows ∼0.97 mA cm of current density, and can split water under zero-bias conditions. Enhancement of the PEC device by accelerating electron and hole transport and broadening the diffusion length using photosensitizer materials while avoiding typical recombination with a thin passivation layer was achieved. The charge transport mechanism through combining experimental results in half and overall water splitting reactions is proposed. The success of such efficient multi-layered heterojunction photoelectrodes is essential for the future development of green energy harvesting devices.

Bibliographic Details

Ghorpade, Uma V.; Suryawanshi, Mahesh P.; Shin, Seung Wook; Kim, Jihun; Kang, Soon Hyung; Ha, Jun-Seok; Kolekar, Sanjay S.; Kim, Jin Hyeok

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

Chemistry; Energy; Materials Science

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