Publication detail

Organic photoelectrode engineering: accelerating photocurrent generation via donor-acceptor interactions and surface-assisted synthetic approach

KOCHERGIN, Y. MOHSEN BELADI, M. KHEZRI, B. LYU, P. BOJDYS, M. PUMERA, M.

Original Title

Organic photoelectrode engineering: accelerating photocurrent generation via donor-acceptor interactions and surface-assisted synthetic approach

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Conventional photoelectrocatalysts composed of precious metals and inorganic elements have limited synthetic design, hence, hampered modularity of their photophysical properties. Here, we demonstrate a scalable, one-pot synthetic approach to grow organic polymer films on the surface of the conventional copper plate under mild conditions. Molecular precursors, containing electron-rich thiophene and electron-deficient triazine-rings, were combined into a donor-acceptor pi-conjugated polymer with a broad visible light adsorption range due to a narrow bandgap of 1.42 eV. The strong charge push-pull effect enabled the fabricated donor-acceptor material to have a marked activity as an electrode in a photoelectrochemical cell, reaching anodic photocurrent density of 6.8 mu A cm(-2) (at 0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl, pH 7). This value is 3 times higher than that of the model donor-donor thiophene-only-based polymer and twice as high as that of the analogue synthesized in bulk using the heterogenous CuCl catalyst. In addition, the fabricated photoanode showed a 2-fold increase in the photoelectrocatalytic oxygen evolution from water upon simulated sunlight irradiation with the photocurrent density up to 4.8 mA cm(-2) (at 1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, pH 14). The proposed engineering strategy opens new pathways toward the fabrication of efficient organic "green" materials for photoelectrocatalytic solar energy conversion.

Keywords

photoelectrode engineering

Authors

KOCHERGIN, Y.; MOHSEN BELADI, M.; KHEZRI, B.; LYU, P.; BOJDYS, M.; PUMERA, M.

Released

21. 3. 2021

Publisher

Royal Society of Chemistry

Location

CAMBRIDGE

ISBN

2050-7488

Periodical

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Year of study

9

Number

11

State

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Pages from

7162

Pages to

7171

Pages count

10

URL

Full text in the Digital Library

BibTex

@article{BUT171769,
  author="Yaroslav S. {Kochergin} and Mousavi {Mohsen Beladi} and Bahareh {Khezri} and Pengbo {Lyu} and Michael J. {Bojdys} and Martin {Pumera}",
  title="Organic photoelectrode engineering: accelerating photocurrent generation via donor-acceptor interactions and surface-assisted synthetic approach",
  journal="Journal of Materials Chemistry A",
  year="2021",
  volume="9",
  number="11",
  pages="7162--7171",
  doi="10.1039/d0ta11820f",
  issn="2050-7488",
  url="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/TA/D0TA11820F#!divAbstract"
}