skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Light-Driven Water Oxidation Using Polyelectrolyte Layer-by-Layer Chromophore–Catalyst Assemblies

Journal Article · · ACS Energy Letters

Layer-by-Layer (LbL) polyelectrolyte self-assembly occurs by the alternate exposure of a substrate to solutions of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes or polyions. Here, we report the application of LbL to construct chromophore–catalyst assemblies consisting of a cationic polystyrene-based Ru polychromophore (PS-Ru) and a [Ru(tpy)(2-pyridyl-N-methylbenzimidazole) (OH2)]2+ water oxidation catalyst (RuC), codeposited with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as an inert polyanion. These assemblies are deposited onto planar indium tin oxide (ITO, Sn:In2O3) substrates for electrochemical characterization and onto mesoporous substrates consisting of a SnO2/TiO2 core/shell structure atop fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) for application to light-driven water oxidation in a dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthesis cell. Cyclic voltammetry and ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy reveal that multilayer deposition progressively increases the film thickness on ITO glass substrates. Under an applied bias, photocurrent measurements of the (PAA/PS-Ru)5/(PAA/RuC)5 LbL films formed on FTO//SnO2/TiO2 mesoporous core–shell electrodes demonstrate a clear anodic photocurrent response. Prolonged photoelectrolysis experiments, with the use of a dual working electrode collector–generator cell, reveal production of O2 from the illuminated photoanode with a Faradaic efficiency of 22%. Finally, this is the first report to demonstrate the use of polyelectrolyte LbL to construct chromophore–catalyst assemblies for water oxidation.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Solar Fuels (UNC EFRC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001011
OSTI ID:
1387883
Journal Information:
ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 1, Issue 2; Related Information: UNC partners with University of North Carolina (lead); Duke University; University of Florida; Georgia Institute of Technology; University; North Carolina Central University; Research Triangle Institute; ISSN 2380-8195
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (23)

Visible Light Driven Water Splitting in a Molecular Device with Unprecedentedly High Photocurrent Density journal March 2013
An aqueous, organic dye derivatized SnO 2 /TiO 2 core/shell photoanode journal January 2016
Molecular Chromophore–Catalyst Assemblies for Solar Fuel Applications journal August 2015
Accumulation of Multiple Oxidative Equivalents at a Single Site by Cross-Surface Electron Transfer on TiO 2 journal July 2013
Self-Assembled Bilayers on Indium–Tin Oxide (SAB-ITO) Electrodes: A Design for Chromophore–Catalyst Photoanodes journal August 2012
Watching Photoactivation in a Ru(II) Chromophore–Catalyst Assembly on TiO 2 by Ultrafast Spectroscopy journal November 2013
Light Harvesting and Charge Separation in a π-Conjugated Antenna Polymer Bound to TiO 2 journal November 2014
Polymer-Based Ruthenium(II) Polypyridyl Chromophores on TiO 2 for Solar Energy Conversion journal March 2016
Fuzzy Nanoassemblies: Toward Layered Polymeric Multicomposites journal August 1997
Organic and Inorganic Dyes in Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films journal December 2012
pH-Dependent Thickness Behavior of Sequentially Adsorbed Layers of Weak Polyelectrolytes journal May 2000
Ru(bpy) 3 2+ derivatized polystyrenes constructed by nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization. Relationship between polymer chain length, structure and photophysical properties journal January 2015
Efficient Light-Driven Oxidation of Alcohols Using an Organic Chromophore–Catalyst Assembly Anchored to TiO 2 journal March 2016
Visible photoelectrochemical water splitting into H 2 and O 2 in a dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthesis cell journal April 2015
Multilayer Assemblies of Redox Polyelectrolytes journal March 1997
Single-Site, Catalytic Water Oxidation on Oxide Surfaces
  • Chen, Zuofeng; Concepcion, Javier J.; Jurss, Jonah W.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 43, p. 15580-15581 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja906391w
journal November 2009
Oxidative electropolymerization of polypyridyl complexes of ruthenium journal April 1983
Redox Mediator Effect on Water Oxidation in a Ruthenium-Based Chromophore–Catalyst Assembly journal January 2013
Low-Overpotential Water Oxidation by a Surface-Bound Ruthenium-Chromophore-Ruthenium-Catalyst Assembly journal November 2013
Photoassisted Overall Water Splitting in a Visible Light-Absorbing Dye-Sensitized Photoelectrochemical Cell
  • Youngblood, W. Justin; Lee, Seung-Hyun Anna; Kobayashi, Yoji
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 3, p. 926-927 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja809108y
journal January 2009
Visible Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Based on a Ru(II) Polypyridyl Chromophore and Iridium Oxide Nanoparticle Catalyst journal July 2015
Light-Driven Water Splitting with a Molecular Electroassembly-Based Core/Shell Photoanode journal July 2015
Synthesis, characterization, and water oxidation by a molecular chromophore-catalyst assembly prepared by atomic layer deposition. The “mummy” strategy journal January 2015

Cited By (3)

Layer-by-layer assembly for photoelectrochemical nanoarchitectonics journal January 2019
Inorganic Photochemistry and Solar Energy Harvesting: Current Developments and Challenges to Solar Fuel Production journal January 2019
Polymer-based chromophore–catalyst assemblies for solar energy conversion journal December 2017