The Photoelectrochemical Response of a β-Carotene Coated Hematite Nanoarchitecture Biophotoelectrode with Cauliflower and Nano Octahedron Types Morphologies

Abstract

The enhanced performance of the semiconductor electrode for photoelectrochemical water splitting with the coating of a readily available biomolecule such as the β-Carotene could be the next design of bio photoelectrode. In this work, how the β-Carotene coating on a hematite photoelectrode enhanced the performance of photoelectrochemical response has been described. For the same, a one-pot material chemistry route is described here, with which hematite photoelectrode with combined morphologies of the octahedron and cauliflower type can be obtained. The primary significance of the work is that the β-Carotene coating of hematite cauliflower helps in getting a two-fold enhancement in the photocurrent density in comparison to the uncoated one. Though there are many reports about this type of improvement, however, from the cost wise perspective, the isolated β-Carotene pigment coating and its performance in the current study are better. Also, other main physicochemical prospects are that the β-Carotene coating helps in removing the cathodic transient spike obtained in a transient photocurrent measurement for an uncoated hematite cauliflower. It signifies the electron donating action of β-Carotene to prevent excitonic recombination for this kind of new bio photoelectrode design. In addition to this, the octahedron morphologies with the β-Carotene coating also shows similar enhancement, but cauliflower type morphological performance is more evident here in terms of several trials.

RETRACTED: A Facile Photoelectrochemical Sensor for High Sensitive Dopamine and Ascorbic Acid Detection Based on Bi surface Plasmon Resonance-Promoted BiVO4 Microspheres

“…PEC analysis, which is advantageous in the combination of ideal signal ratio with high sensitivity ranging from optical to electrical chemistry has been attracting great appeals resulting from its low cost, fast response and full stability. [8][9][10] The measurement to the PEC approach is established on the basis of the optical and electrical property featured by semiconductor materials. [11][12][13][14][15] That is to say, it plays a significant role to enhance semiconductor materials in virtue of the easily synthesized and broad optical response in the manufacture approaches to ultra-sensitive PEC.…”

Fast Sonochemical Exfoliation of Hematene type Sheets and Flakes from Hematite Nanoarchitectures Shows Enhanced Photocurrent Density

“…From our previous study [40], it is evident that the forced hydrolysis of iron chloride salts in the presence of urea always results in maximum peak intensity for (104) Bragg planes as confirmed by XRD. Here, we have studied the detail crystallographic properties of the Hematene flakes.…”

“…In the water-mediated synthesis, we have obtained only cauliflower-like particles, but without the formation of nanooctahedron usually obtained in an oleic acid-mediated approach. The homogenous solution mixture is also used for thin-film coating, as shown in Figure 1-I A, which on calcination at 500C results in a Hematite film by following the procedure described elsewhere [40]. So far, we have described the formation of a free-standing Hematene nanosheet.…”