Abstract
Heat treatment was utilized to anneal the semiconductorsensitizers (CdS, CdSe and CdS/CdSe) assembled on mesoporousTiO2 films to enhance the performance of the photoelectrodes in a process ofphotoelectrochemical hydrogen generation. Various annealing temperatures (150, 300 and400 °C) were employed and the results show that appropriately elevating the temperature (to approx. 300 °C) can increase the crystallinity of the CdS and CdSe, improve the charge transportcharacteristic of a photoelectrode and, therefore, lead to a higher performance of theTiO2 /CdSand TiO2 /CdSe electrodes. However, an over-annealing temperature (400 °C) may cause serious oxidation and/or decomposition of the sensitizerswhich is unfavorable to the photoelectrode. For the co-sensitized electrode,counter-diffusion of CdS and CdSe happens at the CdS/CdSe interface when theTiO2 /CdS/CdSe electrodewas co-annealed at 300 °C, which significantly decreases the performance of the co-sensitizedelectrode. This problem was solved by annealing first aTiO2 /CdSelectrode at 300 °C, followed by CdSe assembly and a second annealing at150 °C. This electrode appears to have better performance than the others.
Published Version
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