Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Organic semiconductor photocatalysts for the production of solar fuels are attractive as they can be synthetically tuned to absorb visible light while simultaneously retaining suitable energy levels to drive a range of processes. However, a greater understanding of the photophysics that determines t...

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Autors principals: Kosco, J, Gonzalez-Carrero, S, Howells, CT, Fei, T, Dong, Y, Sougrat, R, Harrison, GT, Firdaus, Y, Sheelamanthula, R, Purushothaman, B, Moruzzi, F, Xu, W, Zhao, L, Basu, A, De Wolf, S, Anthopoulos, TD, Durrant, JR, McCulloch, I
Format: Journal article
Idioma:English
Publicat: Springer Nature 2022
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author Kosco, J
Gonzalez-Carrero, S
Howells, CT
Fei, T
Dong, Y
Sougrat, R
Harrison, GT
Firdaus, Y
Sheelamanthula, R
Purushothaman, B
Moruzzi, F
Xu, W
Zhao, L
Basu, A
De Wolf, S
Anthopoulos, TD
Durrant, JR
McCulloch, I
author_facet Kosco, J
Gonzalez-Carrero, S
Howells, CT
Fei, T
Dong, Y
Sougrat, R
Harrison, GT
Firdaus, Y
Sheelamanthula, R
Purushothaman, B
Moruzzi, F
Xu, W
Zhao, L
Basu, A
De Wolf, S
Anthopoulos, TD
Durrant, JR
McCulloch, I
author_sort Kosco, J
collection OXFORD
description Organic semiconductor photocatalysts for the production of solar fuels are attractive as they can be synthetically tuned to absorb visible light while simultaneously retaining suitable energy levels to drive a range of processes. However, a greater understanding of the photophysics that determines the function of organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles is needed to optimize performance. Here, we show that such materials can intrinsically generate remarkably long-lived reactive charges, enabling them to efficiently drive sacrificial hydrogen evolution. Our optimized hetereojunction photocatalysts comprise the conjugated polymer PM6 matched with Y6 or PCBM electron acceptors, and achieve external quantum efficiencies of 1.0% to 5.0% at 400 to 900 nm and 8.7% to 2.6% at 400 to 700 nm, respectively. Employing transient and operando spectroscopies, we find that the heterojunction structure in these nanoparticles greatly enhances the generation of long-lived charges (millisecond to second timescale) even in the absence of electron/hole scavengers or Pt. Such long-lived reactive charges open potential applications in water-splitting Z-schemes and in driving kinetically slow and technologically desirable oxidations.
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spelling oxford-uuid:229c982d-4fd9-4ebf-814c-1b91927dba0f2022-09-15T10:11:12ZGeneration of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolutionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:229c982d-4fd9-4ebf-814c-1b91927dba0fEnglishSymplectic ElementsSpringer Nature2022Kosco, JGonzalez-Carrero, SHowells, CTFei, TDong, YSougrat, RHarrison, GTFirdaus, YSheelamanthula, RPurushothaman, BMoruzzi, FXu, WZhao, LBasu, ADe Wolf, SAnthopoulos, TDDurrant, JRMcCulloch, IOrganic semiconductor photocatalysts for the production of solar fuels are attractive as they can be synthetically tuned to absorb visible light while simultaneously retaining suitable energy levels to drive a range of processes. However, a greater understanding of the photophysics that determines the function of organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles is needed to optimize performance. Here, we show that such materials can intrinsically generate remarkably long-lived reactive charges, enabling them to efficiently drive sacrificial hydrogen evolution. Our optimized hetereojunction photocatalysts comprise the conjugated polymer PM6 matched with Y6 or PCBM electron acceptors, and achieve external quantum efficiencies of 1.0% to 5.0% at 400 to 900 nm and 8.7% to 2.6% at 400 to 700 nm, respectively. Employing transient and operando spectroscopies, we find that the heterojunction structure in these nanoparticles greatly enhances the generation of long-lived charges (millisecond to second timescale) even in the absence of electron/hole scavengers or Pt. Such long-lived reactive charges open potential applications in water-splitting Z-schemes and in driving kinetically slow and technologically desirable oxidations.
spellingShingle Kosco, J
Gonzalez-Carrero, S
Howells, CT
Fei, T
Dong, Y
Sougrat, R
Harrison, GT
Firdaus, Y
Sheelamanthula, R
Purushothaman, B
Moruzzi, F
Xu, W
Zhao, L
Basu, A
De Wolf, S
Anthopoulos, TD
Durrant, JR
McCulloch, I
Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
title Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
title_full Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
title_fullStr Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
title_full_unstemmed Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
title_short Generation of long-lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
title_sort generation of long lived charges in organic semiconductor heterojunction nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
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