Regensburg 2019 – scientific programme
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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten
DS 17: Frontiers of Electronic-Structure Theory: Focus on the Interface Challenge V (joint session O/CPP/DS/TT)
DS 17.9: Talk
Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 13:00–13:15, H9
What Makes a Successful Photoanode? - The Role of the Semiconductor--Catalyst Interface — •Franziska Simone Hegner1, Benjamin Moss2, James Durrant2, Sixto Gimenez3, José-Ramón Galán-Mascarós1, and Núria López1 — 1Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) — 2Imperial College London — 3Institute of Advanced Materials, Castellón
A large scale implementations of artificial photosynthesis is still limited by the low efficiencies of the employed photoelectrochemical systems. A common strategy to improve performance is to deposit a co-catalyst on the light-harvesting photoanode. However, the role of the catalyst is controversial; is it acting as a true catalyst, i.e. transferring charges, or is it merely influencing the electronic structure of the semiconductor?[1]
The semiconductor-catalyst interface is key to catalytic performance, but its accurate description is limited since linear scaling relationships no longer apply. Herein the function of the co-catalyst (cobalt hexacyanoferrate) is discussed on two photoanode interfaces, Fe2O3 and BiVO4. Density Functional Theory and time-resolved spectroscopy were used to shed light on the underlying charge-transfer processes. Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of all applied techniques, a relationship between electronic structure alignment, interface morphology, and photocatalytic efficiency is proposed.[2]
[1] D. R. Gamelin, Nat. Chem., 4 (2012), 965-967. [2] F. S. Hegner, D. Cardena-Moscoros, S. Gimenez, N. López, J. R. Galán-Mascarós. ChemSusChem, 10 (2017) 4552-4560.