Charge carrier dynamics of photoexcited Co3O4 in methanol: extending high harmonic transient absorption spectroscopy to liquid environments

L Robert Baker; Chang-Ming Jiang; Stephen T Kelly; J Matthew Lucas; Josh Vura-Weis; Mary K Gilles; A Paul Alivisatos; Stephen R Leone

doi:10.1021/nl502817a

Charge carrier dynamics of photoexcited Co3O4 in methanol: extending high harmonic transient absorption spectroscopy to liquid environments

Nano Lett. 2014 Oct 8;14(10):5883-90. doi: 10.1021/nl502817a. Epub 2014 Sep 22.

Authors

L Robert Baker¹, Chang-Ming Jiang, Stephen T Kelly, J Matthew Lucas, Josh Vura-Weis, Mary K Gilles, A Paul Alivisatos, Stephen R Leone

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, ‡Department of Mechanical Engineering, and §Department of Physics, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.

PMID: 25222441
DOI: 10.1021/nl502817a

Abstract

Charge carrier dynamics in Co3O4 thin films are observed using high harmonic generation transient absorption spectroscopy at the Co M2,3 edge. Results reveal that photoexcited Co3O4 decays to the ground state in 600 ± 40 ps in liquid methanol compared to 1.9 ± 0.3 ns in vacuum. Kinetic analysis suggests that surface-mediated relaxation of photoexcited Co3O4 may be the result of hole transfer from Co3O4 followed by carrier recombination at the Co3O4-methanol interface.

Keywords: High harmonic generation; interfacial charge transfer; ligand-to-metal charge transfer; photocatalysis; surface states; transient absorption spectroscopy.

Publication types

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