Nanoporous photocathode and photoanode made by multilayer assembly of quantum dots.
We perform in this paper a kinetic study of the photoelectrochemical responses of nanoporous thin photoactive films. The films were fabricated by by a layer-by-layer assembly of positively charged polyelectrolytes (poly-l-Lysine, pLys) and negatively charged semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) on a carboxylic acid terminated alkanethiol-modified gold electrode. Two types of NPs were used to build uniform films: cadmium selenide (CdSe) and cadmium selenide/cadmium sulfide core/shell (CdSe@CdS). Large photocathodic and photoanodic currents were recorded for CdSe and CdSe@CdS sensitized films, respectively. A theoretical model of the photocurrent responses was developed to analyze the kinetics of photoinduced processes and coupled reactions, showing that the multilayer films behave as homogeneous nanoporous semiconducting photoelectrodes.
Hojeij
Mohamad
M
Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Station 6, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Su
Bin
B
Tan
Shuxin
S
Mériguet
Guillaume
G
Girault
Hubert H
HH
D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008839:Microelectrodes; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010316:Particle Size; D016062:Porosity; D045663:Quantum Dots; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D013440:Sulfides / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D018036:Selenium Compounds; D013440:Sulfides; C034939:cadmium sulfide; C058667:cadmium selenide