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Heavy metal-free, near-infrared colloidal quantum dots for efficient photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation.

Authors :
Tong, Xin
Zhou, Yufeng
Jin, Lei
Basu, Kaustubh
Adhikari, Rajesh
Selopal, Gurpreet Singh
Zhao, Haiguang
Sun, Shuhui
Vomiero, Alberto
Wang, Zhiming M.
Rosei, Federico
Source :
Nano Energy; Jan2017, Vol. 31, p441-449, 9p
Publication Year :
2017

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen generation based on colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is very promising because of its high solar energy to fuel conversion efficiency and low fabrication costs. However, its commercial development is hindered by various challenges, including the widespread use of toxic heavy metal–based QDs as sensitizers. We report an environmentally friendly, high efficiency PEC device in which the photoanode consists of a mesoporous TiO 2 film sensitized with heavy metal-free, near-infrared (NIR) colloidal CuInSe x S 2−x (CISeS) QDs. To reduce surface-related traps, we grew an ultrathin ZnS shell on the CISeS core QDs by cation exchange. The PEC cell based on this core/shell CISeS/ZnS QDs exhibits suppressed charge recombination and a saturated photocurrent density of ~5.3 mA/cm 2 under one sun illumination (AM 1.5 G, 100 mW/cm 2 ). In addition, the as-prepared PEC device shows an outstanding stability, exhibiting a drop of only 23% after 9 h illumination. The success in using such core/shell CISeS/ZnS QDs paves the way to realize environment-friendly, high efficiency and cost-effective PEC devices for hydrogen production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
22112855
Volume :
31
Database :
Supplemental Index
Journal :
Nano Energy
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
120889557
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.11.053