Bioinspired Light-Driven Proton Pump: Engineering Band Alignment of WS2 with PEDOT:PSS and PDINN

Min Zhou; Peikun Zhang; Ming Zhang; Xiaoyan Jin; Yuhui Zhang; Biying Liu; Di Quan; Meijuan Jia; Zhiguo Zhang; Zhuhua Zhang; Xiang-Yu Kong; Lei Jiang

doi:10.1002/smll.202308277

Bioinspired Light-Driven Proton Pump: Engineering Band Alignment of WS₂ with PEDOT:PSS and PDINN

Small. 2024 May;20(18):e2308277. doi: 10.1002/smll.202308277. Epub 2023 Dec 3.

Authors

Min Zhou^{1

2}, Peikun Zhang³, Ming Zhang⁴, Xiaoyan Jin¹, Yuhui Zhang¹, Biying Liu^{1

2}, Di Quan^{1

2}, Meijuan Jia¹, Zhiguo Zhang⁴, Zhuhua Zhang³, Xiang-Yu Kong^{1

2

5}, Lei Jiang^{1

2

5}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
² School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, and Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, P. R. China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Organic/Inorganic Composites, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China.
⁵ Science and Technology Center for Quantum Biology, National Institute of Extremely-Weak Magnetic Field Infrastructure, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310051, P. R. China.

PMID: 38044301
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202308277

Abstract

Bioinspired two-dimensional (2D) nanofluidic systems for photo-induced ion transport have attracted great attention, as they open a new pathway to enabling light-to-ionic energy conversion. However, there is still a great challenge in achieving a satisfactory performance. It is noticed that organic solar cells (OSCs, light-harvesting device based on photovoltaic effect) commonly require hole/electron transport layer materials (TLMs), PEDOT:PSS (PE) and PDINN (PD), respectively, to promote the energy conversion. Inspired by such a strategy, an artificial proton pump by coupling a nanofluidic system with TLMs is proposed, in which the PE- and PD-functionalized tungsten disulfide (WS₂) multilayers construct a heterogeneous membrane, realizing an excellent output power of ≈1.13 nW. The proton transport is fine-regulated due to the TLMs-engineered band structure of WS₂. Clearly, the incorporating TLMs of OSCs into 2D nanofluidic systems offers a feasible and promising approach for band edge engineering and promoting the light-to-ionic energy conversion.

Keywords: 2D nanofluidic membrane; band edge shifting; electron/hole transport layer materials; light‐to‐ionic energy conversion; proton transport.

Abstract

Grants and funding