Three-Dimensional CdS-Sensitized Sea Urchin Like TiO₂-Ordered Arrays as Efficient Photoelectrochemical Anodes

Abstract

We demonstrate the fabrication of a 3D ordered sea urchin like TiO 2 structure by combining colloidal spheres template, atomic layer deposition (ALD), and hydrothermal growth method. The 3D sea urchin like TiO 2 arrays as photoanode present improved photoelectrochemical performance in contrast to 2D TiO 2 hollow microspheres and 1D TiO 2 nanowires arrays. With CdS quantum dots sensitization, the sea urchin like TiO 2 array photoanode yields a photocurrent of 5.4 mA cm −2 at 0 V vs Ag/AgCl. The performance improvement is attributed to the increased specific surface area and porosity, light trapping effect by multiscattering of the hierarchical structure, as well as direct charge transportation paths from the nanorods to the microspheres.

Mixed 3D/2D dimensional TiO2 nanoflowers/MoSe2 nanosheets for enhanced photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation

“…Recently, 3D TiO 2 nanoflowers (NFs) or branched TiO 2 nanowires have gained great attention because of their lager specific area, good carrier transmission, and enlarged electrode/electrolyte interface . However, the PEC performance of 3D TiO 2 NFs is still limited by the narrow light absorption in ultraviolet region due to its wide band gap, which only holds a proportion of 4% in the whole solar spectrum . Meanwhile, there still exists high recombination of photogenerated electron‐hole pairs in pure 3D TiO 2 photoanodes .…”

“…1,4,5 However, the PEC performance of 3D TiO 2 NFs is still limited by the narrow light absorption in ultraviolet region due to its wide band gap, which only holds a proportion of 4% in the whole solar spectrum. [6][7][8][9] Meanwhile, there still exists high recombination of photogenerated electronhole pairs in pure 3D TiO 2 photoanodes. 10,11 Til date, many methods have been investigated to solve the above-mentioned problems of TiO 2 -based photoanodes such as doping, 12 surface decoration with metal nanoparticle, 9 forming heterojunction, [13][14][15] etc.…”

Facile synthesis of titanium dioxide-cadmium sulfide nanocomposite using pulsed laser ablation in liquid and its performance in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications

“…The most promising approach used to achieve the aforementioned challenges requires the use of bio-friendly, clean, and abundant source of energy like solar energy using semiconductor catalysts. Previous reports have shown that better performance is achieved from the use of cadmium sulfide (CdS) [9,10] among all other narrow band gap semiconductors like CuTe [11], PbSe [12], PbS [13], CdSe [14], and InP [15]. Because the solar spectrum contains 5% UV light, 48% visible (Vis) light, and 44% near infrared light [5], it is a better option to narrow the wide band gap of metal oxide semiconductors so that one can use Vis light to activate the catalyst.…”

Rational Design of 3D Hierarchical Ternary SnO2/TiO2/BiVO4 Arrays Photoanode toward Efficient Photoelectrochemical Performance

“…Among them, BiVO 4 semiconductor is particularly attractive because it has a narrow band gap of ≈2.4 eV, suitable conduction band (0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE) and valence band edges, high water splitting efficiency, and good chemical stability. For instance, 1D nanorods, [25] 2D nanosheets, [26] 3D inverse opals, [27] 3D hierarchical structures, [28][29][30] and 3D brochosomes-like arrays [31] have been reported to enhance the light harvesting and charge transport performance. To address these problems, various strategies such as morphology design, element doping, host-guest heterojunctions and surface modifications are developed to enhance the performance.…”