Dual-Hole Excitons Activated Photoelectrolysis in Neutral Solution

Sung-Fu Hung; Zhi-Zhong Chen; Chun-Chih Chang; Chia-Shuo Hsu; Ming-Kang Tsai; Chia-Cheng Kang; Hao Ming Chen

doi:10.1002/smll.201704047

Dual-Hole Excitons Activated Photoelectrolysis in Neutral Solution

Small. 2018 Apr;14(14):e1704047. doi: 10.1002/smll.201704047. Epub 2018 Feb 19.

Authors

Sung-Fu Hung¹, Zhi-Zhong Chen², Chun-Chih Chang³, Chia-Shuo Hsu¹, Ming-Kang Tsai³, Chia-Cheng Kang², Hao Ming Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 106, Taiwan.
² Department of Chemistry, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, 242, Taiwan.
³ Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, 116, Taiwan.

PMID: 29457346
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201704047

Abstract

II-VI semiconductors exhibit unique behaviors that can generate dual-holes ("heavy and light"), but the application in photocatalysis is still missing. Herein, an empirical utilization of light/heavy holes in a hybrid metal cluster-2D semiconductor nanoplatelets is reported. This hybrid material can boost the hole-transfer at the surface and suppress the recombination. Different roles are enacted by light-holes and heavy-holes, in which the light-holes with higher energy and mobility can facilitate the slow kinetics of water oxidation and further reduce the onset voltage, while the massive heavy-holes can increase the resulting photocurrent by about five times, achieving a photocurrent of 2 mA cm^-2 at 1.23 V versus RHE under AM 1.5 G illumination in nonsacrificial neutral solution. These strategies can be the solutions for photoelectrolysis and be beneficial for sustainable development in solar conversion.

Keywords: cadmium selenide; light holes; nanoplatelets; photoelectrochemistry; photoelectrolysis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't