More than protection: the function of TiO $_{\textrm{2}}$ interlayers in hematite functionalized Si photoanodes. Kawde, A., Annamalai, A., Sellstedt, A., Uhlig, J., Wågberg, T., Glatzel, P., & Messinger, J. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 22(48):28459–28467, 2020.
More than protection: the function of TiO $_{\textrm{2}}$ interlayers in hematite functionalized Si photoanodes [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Signature of performance-enhancing oxygen vacancies in the mesoporous TiO 2  interlayer of a hematite functionalized Si microwire photoanode revealed by hard energy X-ray spectroscopy. , Worldwide significant efforts are ongoing to develop devices that store solar energy as fuels. In one such approach, solar energy is absorbed by semiconductors and utilized directly by catalysts at their surfaces to split water into H 2 and O 2 . To protect the semiconductors in these photo-electrochemical cells (PEC) from corrosion, frequently thin TiO 2 interlayers are applied. Employing a well-performing photoanode comprised of 1-D n-Si microwires (MWs) covered with a mesoporous (mp) TiO 2 interlayer fabricated by solution processing and functionalized with α-Fe 2 O 3 nanorods, we studied here the function of this TiO 2 interlayer by high-energy resolution fluorescence detected X-ray absorption near edge structure (HERFD-XANES) spectroscopy, along with X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and standard characterization techniques. Our data reveal that the TiO 2 interlayer not only protects the n-Si MW surface from corrosion, but that it also acts as a template for the hydrothermal growth of α-Fe 2 O 3 nanorods and improves the photocatalytic efficiency. We show that the latter effect correlates with the presence of stable oxygen vacancies at the interface between mp-TiO 2 and α-Fe 2 O 3 , which act as electron traps and thereby substantially reduce the charge recombination rate at the hematite surface.
@article{kawde_more_2020,
	title = {More than protection: the function of {TiO} $_{\textrm{2}}$ interlayers in hematite functionalized {Si} photoanodes},
	volume = {22},
	issn = {1463-9076, 1463-9084},
	shorttitle = {More than protection},
	url = {http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D0CP04280C},
	doi = {10/gjdpf7},
	abstract = {Signature of performance-enhancing oxygen vacancies in the mesoporous TiO
              2
               interlayer of a hematite functionalized Si microwire photoanode revealed by hard energy X-ray spectroscopy.
            
          , 
            
              Worldwide significant efforts are ongoing to develop devices that store solar energy as fuels. In one such approach, solar energy is absorbed by semiconductors and utilized directly by catalysts at their surfaces to split water into H
              2
              and O
              2
              . To protect the semiconductors in these photo-electrochemical cells (PEC) from corrosion, frequently thin TiO
              2
              interlayers are applied. Employing a well-performing photoanode comprised of 1-D n-Si microwires (MWs) covered with a mesoporous (mp) TiO
              2
              interlayer fabricated by solution processing and functionalized with α-Fe
              2
              O
              3
              nanorods, we studied here the function of this TiO
              2
              interlayer by high-energy resolution fluorescence detected X-ray absorption near edge structure (HERFD-XANES) spectroscopy, along with X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and standard characterization techniques. Our data reveal that the TiO
              2
              interlayer not only protects the n-Si MW surface from corrosion, but that it also acts as a template for the hydrothermal growth of α-Fe
              2
              O
              3
              nanorods and improves the photocatalytic efficiency. We show that the latter effect correlates with the presence of stable oxygen vacancies at the interface between mp-TiO
              2
              and α-Fe
              2
              O
              3
              , which act as electron traps and thereby substantially reduce the charge recombination rate at the hematite surface.},
	language = {en},
	number = {48},
	urldate = {2021-06-07},
	journal = {Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics},
	author = {Kawde, Anurag and Annamalai, Alagappan and Sellstedt, Anita and Uhlig, Jens and Wågberg, Thomas and Glatzel, Pieter and Messinger, Johannes},
	year = {2020},
	pages = {28459--28467},
}

Downloads: 0