title: Self-Biased Hybrid Piezoelectric-Photoelectrochemical Cell with Photocatalytic Functionalities.
abstract: Utilizing solar energy for environmental and energy remediations based on photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) generation and water cleaning poses great challenges due to inadequate visible-light power conversion, high recombination rate, and intermittent availability of solar energy. Here, we report an energy-harvesting technology that utilizes multiple energy sources for development of sustainable operation of dual photocatalytic reactions. The fabricated hybrid cell combines energy harvesting from light and vibration to run a power-free photocatalytic process that exploits novel metal-semiconductor branched heterostructure (BHS) of its visible light absorption, high charge-separation efficiency, and piezoelectric properties to overcome the aforementioned challenges. The desirable characteristics of conductive flexible piezoelectrode in conjunction with pronounced light scattering of hierarchical structure originate intrinsically from the elaborate design yet facile synthesis of BHS. This self-powered photocatalysis system could potentially be used as H2 generator and water treatment system to produce clean energy and water resources.
authors.affiliation: †Engineering Science Programme, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117575.
authors.forename: Chuan Fu
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: ‡Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117583.
authors.forename: Wei Li
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Ong
authors.affiliation: †Engineering Science Programme, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117575.|‡Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117583.|§Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology, and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Ghim Wei
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Ho
keywords: heterostructure; metal sulfide; photocatalyst; photoelectrochemical; piezoelectric; solar hydrogen; zinc oxide