title: Engineered Solution-Liquid-Solid Growth of a "Treelike" 1D/1D TiO2Nanotube-CdSe Nanowire Heterostructure: Photoelectrochemical Conversion of Broad Spectrum of Solar Energy.
abstract: This work presents a hitherto unreported approach to assemble a 1D oxide-1D chalcogenide heterostructured photoactive film. As a representative system, bismuth (Bi) catalyzed 1D CdSe nanowires are directly grown on anodized 1D TiO2nanotube (T_NT). A combination of the reductive successive-ionic-layer-adsorption-reaction (R-SILAR) and the solution-liquid-solid (S-L-S) approach is implemented to fabricate this heterostructured assembly, reported in this 1D/1D form for the first time. XRD, SEM, HRTEM, and elemental mapping are performed to systematically characterize the deposition of bismuth on T_NT and the growth of CdSe nanowires leading to the evolution of the 1D/1D heterostructure. The resulting "treelike" photoactive architecture demonstrates UV-visible light-driven electron-hole pair generation. The photoelectrochemical results highlight: (i) the formation of a stable n-n heterojunction between TiO2nanotube and CdSe nanowire, (ii) an excellent correlation between the absorbance vis-à-vis light conversion efficiency (IPCE), and (iii) a photocurrent density of 3.84 mA/cm2. This proof-of-concept features the viability of the approach for designing such complex 1D/1D oxide-chalcogenide heterostructures that can be of interest to photovoltaics, photocatalysis, environmental remediation, and sensing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada , Reno, Nevada 89557, United States.
authors.forename: Bratindranath
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada , Reno, Nevada 89557, United States.
authors.forename: Swagotom
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarker
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada , Reno, Nevada 89557, United States.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Crone
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada , Reno, Nevada 89557, United States.
authors.forename: Pawan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pathak
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada , Reno, Nevada 89557, United States.
authors.forename: Vaidyanathan R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Subramanian
keywords: CdSe nanowires; TiO2 nanotubes; bismuth nanoparticles; photoelectrochemistry; solution−liquid−solid