open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/90573

Water Reduction Photocathodes Based on Ru Complex Dyes Covered with a Conjugated Polymer Nanosheet

英語

2022-10-06

American Chemical Society

Energy & fuels

36(19)

11559-11566

Water-splitting dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells are promising devices for resolving energy and environmental problems by producing H-2, a clean energy source, from water and sunlight. However, their performance is still limited because of dye desorption from the electrode and their weak light-absorption efficiency. In this study, we fabricated two water-reducing photocathodes, NiO vertical bar RuCP/BQPy and NiO vertical bar RuCP-Zr-RuP/BQPy, by combining the layer-by-layer formation of mono(RuCP) and bi- (RuCP and RuP with Zr4+ cations) layer molecular films of Ru(II) dyes, respectively, on a p-type NiO substrate with the chemical vapor deposition of the nanosheet catalyst based on the BQPy organic polymer comprising benzoquinone and pyrrole moieties. These photocathodes produced H-2 under visible light irradiation and a small electrical bias in a 0.1 M Na2SO4 aqueous solution (lambda > 420 nm, 65 mW cm(-2), E = -0.254 V versus normal hydrogen electrode, and pH 3). Both the photocurrent value and amount of H-2 produced by double-dye-layered NiO vertical bar RuCP-Zr-RuP/BQPy were smaller than those of NiO vertical bar RuCP/BQPy, probably because of the energy transfer inactivation between the Ru(II) dyes, which competes with the reductive quenching (i.e., electron injection) by NiO. Ru(II) dye desorption from the NiO vertical bar RuCP/BQPy photocathode was significantly reduced to approximately a third of that of NiO vertical bar RuCP, indicating that the deposited BQPy polymer improved the durability of the photocathode. The deposition of the BQPy polymer can be easily performed under mild conditions (60 degrees C in air); therefore, this technique shows great potential application for the construction of various types of dye-sensitized water-reducing photocathodes.

学術雑誌論文

Accepted Manuscript

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Energy & fuels, copyright c American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR-T8K3YHF5BCIPYCA65732.

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