A fully printed organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite photocathode for photoelectrochemical reduction of Cr(VI) in aqueous solution

Abstract

A fully printed organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite photocathode for photoelectrochemical reduction of Cr(VI) in aqueous solution. • A fully printed organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite photocathode is developed. • The perovskite photocathode is low cost and easy large-scale production. • The polyoxometalate doped photocathode shows an enhanced photoelectric performance. • The photocathode achieves a catalytic efficiency reaches 95.8% after 120 min. Despite organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite (OMHP) materials have received continuous attention owing to their excellent photoelectric properties, the instability towards water seriously impedes the development of these materials in aqueous reaction. We here constructed a fully printed OMHP photocathode, choose commercial carbon paste and metal conductive paint for both waterproof and photogenerated electron transmission function among the preparation processes. Furthermore, the photoelectrochemical reduction of Cr(VI) was carried out as a model reaction to research performance of the photocathode. In addition, we introduced a Keggin type of polyoxometalate (PW 12 ) into the perovskite layer for improving the quality, the PW 12 doped photocathode exhibited significantly enhanced catalytic activity which the amount of reduced Cr(VI) is more than 98.5% within 120 min. Herein, the preparation method of this perovskite photocathode as a general and scalable approach can demonstrate both excellent photoelectrochemical activity and long-term stability. These results provide new insights into preparation of OMHP photoelectrode, and also expand the application range of OMHP material.