Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• recognized target for renewable energy production. Among the different technologies, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have attracted particular interest, starting from the publication of the seminal paper of Gratzel and O’Reagan in 1991 [1]. A DSSC is a photoelectrochemical system, similar to others studied

Donor–acceptor graphene-based hybrid materials facilitating photo-induced electron-transfer reactions

• Anastasios Stergiou,
• Georgia Pagona and
• Nikos Tagmatarchis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1580–1589, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.170

•  1. Usually, the photoelectrochemical measurements of graphene-based hybrid materials with photoactive organic electron donors are carried out in a three-compartment cell using a potentiostat, employing a saturated calomel reference electrode, a working electrode and a Pt wire gauze counter electrode

• about the electronic communication between the chromophore moiety and rGO, which lead to the fabrication of photoelectrochemical cells. The photo-induced electron-transfer properties of ZnP–rGO and RuP–rGO were evaluated by examining the photocurrent responses in thin films on indium tin oxide (ITO). In

• photoelectrochemical cells. Another graphene-based hybrid material was prepared in which a porphyrin was anchored to graphene through Suzuki coupling of iodophenyl-functionalized graphene and the corresponding porphyrin boronic ester [56]. The covalently linked graphene–porphyrin hybrid was especially designed to

DFT study of binding and electron transfer from colorless aromatic pollutants to a TiO₂ nanocluster: Application to photocatalytic degradation under visible light irradiation

• Corneliu I. Oprea,
• Petre Panait and
• Mihai A. Gîrţu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1016–1030, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.115

• catalyst that absorbs only in the UV? ii) Why are some pollutants degraded more efficiently than others? iii) What are the requirements for an effective water-cleaning process? To answer these questions we start from an analogy with the photoelectrochemical Grätzel cells [15][16]. We argue here that

• ]. Building upon the experience gained while modeling materials for photoelectrochemical cells, we report here results of DFT and time dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations performed on several colorless aromatic pollutants, as well as complex systems consisting of benzene derivatives adsorbed on a TiO2

• ? We base our answer on an analogy with the photoelectrochemical Grätzel cells [15][16]. An efficient photocatalytic degradation under exposure to visible light requires: i) strong adsorption of the pollutant to the catalyst, ii) intense absorption of the pollutant or the combined pollutant–catalyst

Growth and characterization of CNT–TiO₂ heterostructures

• Yucheng Zhang,
• Ivo Utke,
• Johann Michler,
• Gabriele Ilari,
• Marta D. Rossell and
• Rolf Erni

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 946–955, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.108

• reality, there are probably more than one mechanism acting in the photocatalysis. It is, however, crucial to investigate the interface so as to understand the dominant mechanism. A fundamental understanding of the mechanisms can also benefit other applications such as photoelectrochemical cells [15

Biomolecule-assisted synthesis of carbon nitride and sulfur-doped carbon nitride heterojunction nanosheets: An efficient heterojunction photocatalyst for photoelectrochemical applications

• Hua Bing Tao,
• Hong Bin Yang,
• Jiazang Chen,
• Jianwei Miao and
• Bin Liu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 770–777, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.89

• heterojunction nanosheets were constructed, which significantly enhanced the photoelectrochemical performance as compared with various control counterparts including CN, CNS and physically mixed CN and CNS (CN+CNS). The enhanced photoelectrochemical performance of CN/CNS heterojunction nanosheets could be

• : graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4); heterojunction; photoelectrochemical; photocatalysis; sulfur doping; Introduction Over the past few years, graphitic carbon nitride (CN) has attracted significant research attention in visible-light-driven photocatalysis because of its unique physical and chemical

• photoelectrochemical performance, which is attributed to the efficient separation of photoexcited charge carriers across the heterojunction interface. The strategy of designing and preparing CN/CNS heterojunction photocatalysts in this work can open up new directions for the construction of all CN-based heterojunction

Visible light photooxidative performance of a high-nuclearity molecular bismuth vanadium oxide cluster

• Johannes Tucher and
• Carsten Streb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 711–716, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.83

• photocatalysts and is employed in photochemical and photoelectrochemical visible-light-driven water splitting systems [37][38][39][40][41]. At the start of our studies, no molecular bismuth vanadium oxides were known in the literature. We thus developed a synthetic approach to bismuth vanadate clusters based on

Nanostructure sensitization of transition metal oxides for visible-light photocatalysis

• Hongjun Chen and
• Lianzhou Wang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 696–710, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.82

• important photocatalytic applications. Since the discovery of TiO2 for photoelectrochemical splitting of water in 1972 by Fujishima and Honda [4], great efforts have been directed to the research of the conversion of solar energy, in the process of which the development and utilization of a variety of

• greatly prolonged lifetime of photoexcited carriers [36]. We also investigated the photoelectrochemical behavior of CdS sensitized TiO2 film with {001} facet enriched anatase nanocrystals [37]. Zhang et al. developed a double-sided CdS and CdSe quantum dot co-sensitized ZnO nanowire arrayed photoanode for

• photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation [38]. As shown in Figure 4, the scheme shows that the quantum dots of CdS and CdSe on both sides of ITO can be excited and transfer electrons to the ZnO nanowire array. The CB edges of CdS and CdSe are higher than that of ZnO (Figure 4b). Due to this unique configuration and

A visible-light-driven composite photocatalyst of TiO₂ nanotube arrays and graphene quantum dots

• Donald K. L. Chan,
• Po Ling Cheung and
• Jimmy C. Yu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 689–695, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.81

• visible-light-driven photocatalysis [35][36]. Very recently, the combination of GQDs with CdS-modified TNAs was reported for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. However, GQDs did not enhance the activity of bare TNAs in the study [37]. GQDs have also been chemically coupled with ZnO nanowires for

• photoelectrochemical water splitting [38]. In the present work, a composite photocatalyst of graphene quantum dots and TiO2 nanotube arrays (GQDs/TNAs) was fabricated by the coupling reaction between carboxyl-containing GQDs and amine-functionalized TNAs (Scheme 1). The experimental data revealed that sensitization of

• TNAs with GQDs not only extended the optical absorption spectrum of TNAs over the visible range, but also enhanced the photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical performances of TNAs under visible light. Results and Discussion Figure 1a shows a TEM image of GQDs with diameters of about 10 nm. The AFM

Dye-sensitized Pt@TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for the efficient photocatalytic generation of hydrogen

• Jun Fang,
• Lisha Yin,
• Shaowen Cao,
• Yusen Liao and
• Can Xue

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 360–364, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.41

• particle bridge. Keywords: charge transfer; dye-sensitization; photocatalysis; photocatalyst; solar fuels; water splitting; Introduction Since Honda and Fujishima reported the effective hydrogen evolution from water splitting by a TiO2 and Pt electrode in a photoelectrochemical cell in the early 1970s [1

Photoelectrochemical and Raman characterization of In₂O₃ mesoporous films sensitized by CdS nanoparticles

• Mikalai V. Malashchonak,
• Sergey K. Poznyak,
• Eugene A. Streltsov,
• Anatoly I. Kulak,
• Olga V. Korolik and
• Alexander V. Mazanik

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 255–261, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.27

• the SILAR deposition. The surface modification of In2O3 with CdS nanoparticles leads to the spectral sensitization of photoelectrochemical processes that manifests itself in a red shift of the long-wavelength edge in the photocurrent spectrum by 100–150 nm. Quantum-confinement effects lead to an

• -band edge (Ec) should be lower than the lowest unoccupied level (LUMO) of the sensitizer, to which the electrons from the highest occupied level are transferred under photoexcitation. The sensitizing efficiency of the photoelectrochemical system depends on (a) the efficiency of separation of the photo

• investigation of nanostructured In2O3 sensitization is also explained by the fact that the Ec level of In2O3 can be managed by the thermal treatment during preparation by the sol–gel method. The aim of this work was to investigate the photoelectrochemical behavior of mesoporous nanocrystalline In2O3 films

Distribution of functional groups in periodic mesoporous organosilica materials studied by small-angle neutron scattering with in situ adsorption of nitrogen

• Monir Sharifi,
• Dirk Wallacher and
• Michael Wark

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 428–437, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.49

• -groups; such material shows a high proton conductivity [27] and has potential to create proton-conducting hybrid membranes for applications in fuel cells [28][29], electrodialysis for water purification [30], or photoelectrochemical cells for water splitting with solar light in order to separate the

Schottky junction/ohmic contact behavior of a nanoporous TiO₂ thin film photoanode in contact with redox electrolyte solutions

• Masao Kaneko,
• Hirohito Ueno and
• Junichi Nemoto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 127–134, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.15

• Masao Kaneko Hirohito Ueno Junichi Nemoto The Institute of Biophotochemonics Co.Ltd., 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito, 310-8512 Japan 10.3762/bjnano.2.15 Abstract The nature and photoelectrochemical reactivity of nanoporous semiconductor electrodes have attracted a great deal of attention. Nanostructured

• condition). The measurements were conducted with the liquid phase under an Ar atmosphere at 25 °C for all the data. The UV-A region light (290–390 nm) intensity was measured by a UV light meter (model UV-340, CUSTOM Co., Ltd.). Side view of a photoelectrochemical cell (1 cm × 1 cm × 3 cm) used for CV