title: Nanoporous photocathode and photoanode made by multilayer assembly of quantum dots.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Station 6, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mohamad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hojeij
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Shuxin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mériguet
authors.forename: Hubert H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Girault
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D018036:Selenium Compounds; D013440:Sulfides; C034939:cadmium sulfide; C058667:cadmium selenide