Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 12, Issue 33, Pages 37218-37226Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c10279
Keywords
PEC water splitting; chlorophyll; FRET; bio-nanocomposite; carbon quantum dots; silicon nanowire
Funding
- Department of Science and Technology [DST/TMD/HFC/2k18/138]
- SERB Project [ECR/2018/001491]
- INSPIRE Faculty [IFA13-PH-51]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Solar-driven water splitting is considered as a futuristic sustainable way to generate hydrogen and chemical storage of solar energy. Further, considering the technological competence, silicon is one of the potential materials for developing large-scale and cost-effective photocathodes (PCs), but it lacks efficacy and stability. Here, we show that chlorophyll(a)/carbon quantum dots (Chl/CQDs) bio-nanocomposite (b-NC)-decorated Si-nanowires (SiNWs) as PC can surpass the reported efficiency for photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen generation along with stability. The optimized heterojunction (Chl/CQDs_SiNW) significantly enhances broad-band solar absorption and protects Si surface from corrosion. Further, the appropriate band alignment enforces efficient photogenerated charge separation and possesses directional exciton transport property via the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. This synergic effect demonstrates an similar to 18 times increase in photocurrent density (26.36 mA/cm(2)) compared to pristine SiNW PC at 1.07 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The efficiency reaches similar to 7.86%, which is comparably the highest reported for hybrid Si-based photocathodes. Hydrogen evaluation rate was measured to be similar to 113 mu mol/h at 0.8 V vs RHE under 1 sun illumination. With Si-process line compatibility, this new finding opens a new direction toward the development of Si-based efficient and stable PCs at a large scale for commercial applications.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available