Abstract
Nanoporous anatase TiO2 films were fabricated by a screen-printing method, and CuxO quantum dots (QDs) were deposited on the TiO2 films through successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). The amount of CuxO QDs on the TiO2 films are controlled by changing the number of SILAR cycles. The morphology, microstructure, optical, and photoelectrochemical properties of different CuxO sensitized TiO2 films (CuxO/TiO2) were investigated in detail. The nanoporous TiO2 film offers a large surface area for anchoring QDs. QD deposited samples exhibited a significant improvement in photoelectrochemical performance than the bare of TiO2. CuxO/TiO2, prepared with 7 SILAR cycles, showed the best photoelectrochemical properties, where the photocurrent density was enhanced to 500.01 μA/cm2 compared with 168.88 μA/cm2 of bare TiO2 under visible light. These results indicate that the designed CuxO/TiO2 structure possesses superior charge separation efficiency and photoelectrochemical properties.
Highlights
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has attracted great interest for water splitting[1, 2], quantum dot-sensitized solar cells[3, 4], optical sensors[5, 6], photocatalytic degradation[7] and other applications[8,9,10], due to its unique optical and photoelectric properties
We report the preparation of nanoporous anatase TiO2 films on transparent conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates by screen-printing and the subsequent deposition of CuxO quantum dots (QDs) on the TiO2 films via successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR)
CuxO QDs are deposited on the nanoporous anatase TiO2 films by a screen-printing method, followed by successive ionic adsorption and reaction (SILAR)
Summary
With more than 9 SILAR cycles, the aggregation of CuxO QDs lead to a large particle size of CuxO QDs, which could block the surface active sites of TiO2 and act as potential barrier of charge transfer, resulting in a decrease of the photoelectrochemical properties[53,54,55,56]. The CuxO/TiO2 prepared with a different number of SILAR cycles (0, 3, 5, 7 and 9 times) exhibited photocurrent values of 168.88, 248.95, 390.98, 500.01, and 424.15 μA/cm[2] at 1.0 V (vs Ag/AgCl) under visible light irradiation, respectively. When 9 SILAR cycles were used, the CuxO QDs aggregated to form a compact granular morphology, resulting in a lower surface area and reduced photocurrent[57]
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