Unravelling Photocarrier Dynamics beyond the Space Charge Region for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Zhang, Wenrui; Yan, Danhua; Appavoo, Kannatassen; Cen, Jiajie; Wu, Qiyuan; Orlov, Alexander; Sfeir, Matthew Y.; Liu, Mingzhao

doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00672

Title: Unravelling Photocarrier Dynamics beyond the Space Charge Region for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Journal Article · Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Chemistry of Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00672· OSTI ID:1438321

^[1];

^[2]; Appavoo, Kannatassen ^[1]; Cen, Jiajie ^[3];

^[3]; Orlov, Alexander ^[3];

^[1]; Liu, Mingzhao ^[1]

Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)
Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)

Semiconductor photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting require efficient carrier generation, separation, and transport at and beyond the space charge region (SCR) formed at the aqueous interface. The trade-off between photon collection and minority carrier delivery governs the photoelectrode design and implies maximum water splitting efficiency at an electrode thickness equivalent to the light absorption depth. Here, using planar ZnO thin films as a model system, we identify the photocarriers beyond the SCR as another significant source to substantially enhance the PEC performance. The high-quality ZnO films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition feature very few deep trap states and support a long photocarrier lifetime. Combined with photoelectrochemical characterization, ultrafast spectroscopy, and numerical calculations, it is revealed that engineering the exciton concentration gradient by film thickness facilitates the inward diffusion of photocarriers from the neighboring illuminated region to the SCR and, therefore, achieves a record high quantum efficiency over 80% at a thickness far beyond its light absorption depth and the SCR width. Furthermore, these results elucidate the important role of the photocarriers beyond SCR for the PEC process and provide new insight into exploring the full potential for efficient photoelectrode materials with large exciton diffusivity.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1438321

Report Number(s):: BNL-205681-2018-JAAM

Journal Information:: Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 9; ISSN 0897-4756

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 16 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (37)

Electrochemical Photolysis of Water at a Semiconductor Electrode Fujishima, Akira; Honda, Kenichi Nature, Vol. 238, Issue 5358, p. 37-38 https://doi.org/10.1038/238037a0	journal	July 1972
Solar Water Splitting Cells Walter, Michael G.; Warren, Emily L.; McKone, James R. Chemical Reviews, Vol. 110, Issue 11, p. 6446-6473 https://doi.org/10.1021/cr1002326	journal	November 2010
Electrochemical Synthesis of Photoelectrodes and Catalysts for Use in Solar Water Splitting Kang, Donghyeon; Kim, Tae Woo; Kubota, Stephen R. Chemical Reviews, Vol. 115, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00498	journal	August 2015
Visible-light driven heterojunction photocatalysts for water splitting – a critical review Moniz, Savio J. A.; Shevlin, Stephen A.; Martin, David James Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 8, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EE03271C	journal	January 2015
Artificial photosynthesis for solar water-splitting Tachibana, Yasuhiro; Vayssieres, Lionel; Durrant, James R. Nature Photonics, Vol. 6, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.175	journal	July 2012
Photoelectrochemistry: Applications to Solar Energy Conversion Nozik, A. J. Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 29, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pc.29.100178.001201	journal	October 1978
Recent advances in semiconductors for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting Hisatomi, Takashi; Kubota, Jun; Domen, Kazunari Chem. Soc. Rev., Vol. 43, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CS60378D	journal	January 2014
Effective Charge Carrier Utilization in Photocatalytic Conversions Zhang, Peng; Wang, Tuo; Chang, Xiaoxia Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 49, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00036	journal	April 2016
Visible-Light Photocatalysis in Nitrogen-Doped Titanium Oxides Asahi, R. Science, Vol. 293, Issue 5528 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1061051	journal	July 2001
Novel Carbon-Doped TiO ₂ Nanotube Arrays with High Aspect Ratios for Efficient Solar Water Splitting Park, Jong Hyeok; Kim, Sungwook; Bard, Allen J. Nano Letters, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl051807y	journal	January 2006
Hydrogen-Treated TiO ₂ Nanowire Arrays for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Wang, Gongming; Wang, Hanyu; Ling, Yichuan Nano Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl201766h	journal	July 2011
Semiconductor-Based Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting at the Limit of Very Wide Depletion Region Liu, Mingzhao; Lyons, John L.; Yan, Danhua Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201503692	journal	November 2015
Nanoporous BiVO₄ Photoanodes with Dual-Layer Oxygen Evolution Catalysts for Solar Water Splitting Kim, Tae Woo; Choi, Kyoung-Shin Science, Vol. 343, Issue 6174, p. 990-994 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1246913	journal	February 2014
Simultaneously Efficient Light Absorption and Charge Separation in WO ₃ /BiVO ₄ Core/Shell Nanowire Photoanode for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation Rao, Pratap M.; Cai, Lili; Liu, Chong Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl500022z	journal	January 2014
Efficient solar water splitting by enhanced charge separation in a bismuth vanadate-silicon tandem photoelectrode Abdi, Fatwa F.; Han, Lihao; Smets, Arno H. M. Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3195	journal	July 2013
Solar Water Splitting: Progress Using Hematite (α-Fe2O3) Photoelectrodes Sivula, Kevin; Le Formal, Florian; Grätzel, Michael ChemSusChem, Vol. 4, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201000416	journal	March 2011
The role of the domain size and titanium dopant in nanocrystalline hematite thin films for water photolysis Yan, Danhua; Tao, Jing; Kisslinger, Kim Nanoscale, Vol. 7, Issue 44 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NR05894E	journal	January 2015
The Role of Metal Ion Dopants in Quantum-Sized TiO ₂ : Correlation between Photoreactivity and Charge Carrier Recombination Dynamics Choi, Wonyong; Termin, Andreas; Hoffmann, Michael R. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 98, Issue 51 https://doi.org/10.1021/j100102a038	journal	December 1994
Atomic Insight into the W-Doping Effect on Carrier Dynamics and Photoelectrochemical Properties of BiVO ₄ Photoanodes Pattengale, Brian; Ludwig, John; Huang, Jier The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 120, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b11451	journal	January 2016
Factors in the Metal Doping of BiVO ₄ for Improved Photoelectrocatalytic Activity as Studied by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy and First-Principles Density-Functional Calculation Park, Hyun S.; Kweon, Kyoung Eun; Ye, Heechang The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 115, Issue 36 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp204492r	journal	August 2011
Highly photoactive Ti-doped α-Fe ₂ O ₃ thin film electrodes: resurrection of the dead layer Zandi, Omid; Klahr, Benjamin M.; Hamann, Thomas W. Energy Environ. Sci., Vol. 6, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1039/C2EE23620F	journal	January 2013
Enhancement in the Performance of Ultrathin Hematite Photoanode for Water Splitting by an Oxide Underlayer Hisatomi, Takashi; Dotan, Hen; Stefik, Morgan Advanced Materials, Vol. 24, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201104868	journal	April 2012
Hydrogen: A Relevant Shallow Donor in Zinc Oxide Hofmann, Detlev M.; Hofstaetter, Albrecht; Leiter, Frank Physical Review Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.045504	journal	January 2002
A comprehensive review of ZnO materials and devices Özgür, Ü.; Alivov, Ya. I.; Liu, C. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 98, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1992666	journal	August 2005
Depletion-Layer Photoeffects in Semiconductors Gärtner, Wolfgang W. Physical Review, Vol. 116, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.116.84	journal	October 1959
Excitonic structure and absorption coefficient measurements of ZnO single crystal epitaxial films deposited by pulsed laser deposition Muth, J. F.; Kolbas, R. M.; Sharma, A. K. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 85, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.370601	journal	June 1999
Metal Oxide Photoelectrodes for Solar Fuel Production, Surface Traps, and Catalysis Sivula, Kevin The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 4, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/jz4002983	journal	April 2013
Photocurrent Enhancement of n-Type Cu ₂ O Electrodes Achieved by Controlling Dendritic Branching Growth McShane, Colleen M.; Choi, Kyoung-Shin Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja806370s	journal	February 2009
Enhancing Water Splitting Activity and Chemical Stability of Zinc Oxide Nanowire Photoanodes with Ultrathin Titania Shells Liu, Mingzhao; Nam, Chang-Yong; Black, Charles T. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 117, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp404032p	journal	June 2013
ZnO−Al ₂ O ₃ and ZnO−TiO ₂ Core−Shell Nanowire Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Law, Matt; Greene, Lori E.; Radenovic, Aleksandra The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 110, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp0648644	journal	November 2006
Role of size and defects in ultrafast broadband emission dynamics of ZnO nanostructures Appavoo, Kannatassen; Liu, Mingzhao; Sfeir, Matthew Y. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868534	journal	March 2014
Enhanced broadband ultrafast detection of ultraviolet emission using optical Kerr gating Appavoo, Kannatassen; Sfeir, Matthew Y. Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 85, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4873475	journal	May 2014
Characterization of nanostructured hybrid and organic solar cells by impedance spectroscopy Fabregat-Santiago, Francisco; Garcia-Belmonte, Germà; Mora-Seró, Iván Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 13, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1039/c0cp02249g	journal	January 2011
Modeling and simulation of polycrystalline ZnO thin-film transistors Hossain, Faruque M.; Nishii, J.; Takagi, S. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 94, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1628834	journal	January 2003
Fundamentals of zinc oxide as a semiconductor Janotti, Anderson; Van de Walle, Chris G. Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 72, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/72/12/126501	journal	October 2009
Excitonic diffusion dynamics in ZnO Jeong, H.; Min, K.; Byun, S. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3690055	journal	February 2012
Absorption coefficient, energy gap, exciton binding energy, and recombination lifetime of GaN obtained from transmission measurements Muth, J. F.; Lee, J. H.; Shmagin, I. K. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 71, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.120191	journal	November 1997

Cited By (5)

Ultrathin Lutetium Oxide Film as an Epitaxial Hole-Blocking Layer for Crystalline Bismuth Vanadate Water Splitting Photoanodes Zhang, Wenrui; Yan, Danhua; Tong, Xiao Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201705512	journal	January 2018
The impact of crystal defects towards oxide semiconductor photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting Liu, Qi-Tao; Liu, De-Yu; Li, Jian-Ming Frontiers of Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-019-0905-4	journal	October 2019
The “Rust” Challenge: On the Correlations between Electronic Structure, Excited State Dynamics, and Photoelectrochemical Performance of Hematite Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting Grave, Daniel A.; Yatom, Natav; Ellis, David S. Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 41 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201706577	journal	March 2018
Effect of Cu, Ni and Pb doping on the photo-electrochemical activity of ZnO thin films Aboud, Ahmed A.; Shaban, Mohamed; Revaprasadu, Neerish RSC Advances, Vol. 9, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ra10599e	journal	January 2019
Recent Advances of Metal‐Oxide Photoanodes: Engineering of Charge Separation and Transportation toward Efficient Solar Water Splitting Xiao, Mu; Luo, Bin; Wang, Zhiliang Solar RRL, Vol. 4, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201900509	journal	February 2020

Similar Records

Semiconductor-based photoelectrochemical water splitting at the limit of very wide depletion region

Journal Article · Mon Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Advanced Functional Materials · OSTI ID:1438321

Liu, Mingzhao; Lyons, John L.; Yan, Danhua H.; +1 more

Evaluation of Nanostructured β-Mn₂V₂O₇ Thin Films as Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

Journal Article · Fri Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Chemistry of Materials · OSTI ID:1438321

Gargasya, Yash; Gish, Melissa K.; Nair, Vineet V.; +2 more

Quantification of the loss mechanisms in emerging water splitting photoanodes through empirical extraction of the spatial charge collection efficiency

Journal Article · Tue Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Energy & Environmental Science · OSTI ID:1438321

Segev, Gideon; Jiang, Chang-Ming; Cooper, Jason K.; +3 more

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

Title: Unravelling Photocarrier Dynamics beyond the Space Charge Region for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Citation Formats

References (37)

Cited By (5)

Similar Records

Related Subjects