Engineering Interfacial Photo-Induced Charge Transfer Based on Nanobamboo Array Architecture for Efficient Solar-to-Chemical Energy Conversion

摘要

Manipulating and tuning the charge carrier transport in photoactive materials has attracted much attention in the fields of photovoltaics and photocatalysis, since it plays an important role in enhancing the photoconversion efficiency. For example, based on photo-induced charge transfer (PICT) dynamics, heterogeneous interfaces within composite photocat-alysts can effectively assist in the interfacial charge separation and hinder the charge recombination to promote the photocata-lytic efficiency. However, assembling various components with inappropriate arrangements would lead to serious recombination losses, as unsuitable interfacial energy band structure would form undesired energy barriers at the heterojunction and impede the charge transportation. Realizing controllable arrangement of various heterojunctions, such as type I heterojunction, Ohmic junction, and Schottkey junction, in 1D heterocomposite nanostructures might circumvent these drawbacks. Specifically, designable energy band structure and tunable heterogeneous interfaces along the axial direction of 1D architectures will be advantageous for efficient transportation of majority carriers. Furthermore, the nanoscale size in the radial direction of 1D architectures can effectively shorten the transfer distance of minority carriers to semiconductor/ electrolyte interface, as shown in the inset of Scheme 1. As a result, the charge recombination would be effectively suppressed and high efficient photoconversion could be expected. In addition, a promising architecture should possess the capability of modulating unique physical and chemical properties of different components to obtain an optimal synergistic performance.