Abstract
We report one dimensional (1-D) transparent-conducting-oxide arrays coated with light-absorbing semiconductors to simultaneously maximize light harvesting and charge collection in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) system. Tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowire (NW) arrays are prepared on ITO thin-film substrates as the transparent-conducting-oxide, and TiO2 or CdSe/CdS/TiO2 thin layers were coated on the ITO NW arrays as the solar light-absorbing layers. The optimal PEC performance, 0.85% under 100 mW cm-2 of light illumination, is obtained from ∼30 μm-long ITO NW, which is covered with ∼20 nm-thick TiO2 nanoshell. We finally demonstrate that the ITO NW-based photoelectrode is also compatible with one of the most efficient visible-light sensitizers, the CdS/CdSe quantum dot. Our approach using the transparent conducting 1-D array has wide potential to improve the PEC performances of conventional semiconducting materials through liberation from the poor charge transport. This journal is
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 8649-8655 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Nanoscale |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 15 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 Aug 7 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Materials Science