Photoelectrochemical and Photovoltaic Properties of p–n Cu₂O Homojunction Films and Their Photocatalytic Performance

Abstract

The improvement of photoinduced charge separation is the key for light-harvesting systems in both photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical solar cells. In this study, the charge separation efficiency has been modulated through varying the magnitude of interfacial electric field in p–n Cu2O homojunction films prepared by simple electrodeposition method. The photoelectrochemical and surface photovoltage measurements were used to investigate the behaviors of photoinducded charge carriers in different p–n Cu2O homojunction films. The results confirmed that the p–n Cu2O homojunction film which exhibited the highest charge separation efficiency resulted in the highest activity in photocatalytic reduction of methyl viologen. These implied that it is possible to achieve high charge separation efficiency via constructing a large magnitude of interfacial electric field within a semiconductor using a simple electrodeposition method.

Enhanced Visible Photovoltaic Response of TiO2 Thin Film with an All-Inorganic Donor–Acceptor Type Polyoxometalate

“…The surface photovoltage spectrum (SPV) was conducted to characterize the charge transfer at the interface of P25 particles and SiW 9 Co 3 upon optical excitation. 52 From Supporting Information Figure S10 we can see that P25 exhibited a sole photovoltage peak around 360 nm, which was ascribed to the charge separation upon only UV light excitation because of the large band gap of TiO 2 . Nevertheless, the SPV response of P25/SiW 9 Co 3 composite displayed two characteristic peaks, which were possibly attributed to the photogenerated charge transfer between SiW 9 Co 3 and P25 particles.…”

A hybrid photoelectrode with plasmonic Au@TiO2 nanoparticles for enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting

“…1,2 The photoelectrochemical (PEC) system in particular can be considered as a promising solar energy conversion technology that can directly convert solar light energy into the chemical fuel such as hydrogen through water splitting process. 1,2 The photoelectrochemical (PEC) system in particular can be considered as a promising solar energy conversion technology that can directly convert solar light energy into the chemical fuel such as hydrogen through water splitting process.…”

Investigating the synergistic effects in tourmaline/TiO2-based heterogeneous photocatalysis: Underlying mechanism insights

“…In the presence of internal electric fields, the promoted motion of photogenerated charge carriers toward opposite directions and even the spatial separation of redox sites can be achieved [5], and band bending can be manipulated as well, for electron-hole pairs separating. Internal electric fields within photocatalysts can be associated with ferroelectric polarization [6,7], and electrochemical potential differences across phase boundaries which could be engineered in p-n junctions, polar surface terminations and polymorph junctions [8][9][10][11]. Recently, some reports focused on the polarizable semiconductors (e.g., ferroelectrics, such as LiNbO 3 [12], BiFeO 3 [13]) to improve photocatalytic activity.…”