Molecular Engineering of Photocathodes based on Polythiophene Organic Semiconductors for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen GenerationShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, ISSN 1944-8244, E-ISSN 1944-8252, Vol. 13, no 34, p. 40602-40611Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Organic semiconductors provide significant potentials for the construction of photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells for solar hydrogen production because of their highly tunable properties. Herein, on carbon fiber paper (CFP) surface, pyridyl (Py), and 4,4'-bipyridin-1-ium (Py-2(+)) groups were introduced into polythiophene (pTH) semiconductor by electrochemical copolymerization, respectively. After assembly with the Co(dmgBF(2))(2) type catalyst (CoB, dmgBF(2) = difluoroboryldimethylglyoximate), the CoB@Py-2(+)-pTH/CFP photocathode displayed nearly twice the photocurrent enhancement (550 mu A cm(-2) at 0.15 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE) comparing to that generated by the CoB@Py-pTH/CFP photocathode (290 mu A cm(-2) at 0.15 V vs RHE) for light-driven H-2 generation under AM 1.5 solar illumination. Investigation of the mechanism revealed that the introduction of the positively charged pyridinium groups could improve the intrinsic Co(dmgBF(2))(2) catalyst activity for the H-2 generation reaction. Meanwhile, the positively charged pyridinium groups serve as p-type dopants to increase the semiconductor bulk charge transfer rate and act as electron transfer mediators to promote the interfacial charge transfer kinetics between the catalyst and the pTH-based organic semiconductor.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society (ACS) , 2021. Vol. 13, no 34, p. 40602-40611
Keywords [en]
photocathode, polythiophene, photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell, light-driven hydrogen production, solar energy conversion
National Category
Other Chemistry Topics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-302609DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c10561ISI: 000693050200038PubMedID: 34403243Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85114084978OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-302609DiVA, id: diva2:1601722
Note
QC 20211010
2021-10-102021-10-102024-03-15Bibliographically approved