The electronic structure and optical absorption spectrum of organometal halide perovskite compound CH3NH3BiI3 as a substituting candidate of well-concerned CH3NH3PbI3 not only for environmental friendly consideration are studied using the first principles calculations. It is revealed that a Bi replacement of Pb in CH3NH3PbI3 does not change seriously the band edge structure but the bandgap beco...

This study presents a novel visible light-active TiO₂ nanotube anode film by sensitization with Bi₂O₃ nanoparticles. The uniform incorporation of Bi₂O₃ contributes to largely enhancing the solar light absorption and photoelectric conversion efficiency of TiO₂ nanotubes. Due to the energy level difference between Bi₂O₃ and TiO₂, the built-in electric field is suggested to be formed in the Bi₂O₃ ...

The first example of excited state electron transfer from cob(I)alamin is reported herein. Vitamin B12 was anchored to a mesoporous TiO2 thin film and electrochemically reduced to the cob(I)alamin form. Pulsed laser excitation resulted in rapid excited state electron transfer, ket > 10(8) s(-1), followed by microsecond interfacial charge recombination to re-form cob(I)alamin. The supernucleophi...

We have designed a novel semiconductor core/layer nanostructure of a uniform ZnO@TiO2 nanorod array modified with a ZnIn0.25Cu0.02S1.395 solid-solution on the surface via a facile hydrothermal synthesis. This novel nanostructure combines the merits of all components and meets the requirements of photovoltaic system application. An intimate PN heterojunction is formed from the ZnO@TiO2 nanorod a...

Modification of titanium dioxide (TiO2) for H2 generation is a grand challenge due to its high chemical inertness, large bandgap, narrow light-response range and rapid recombination of electrons and holes. Herein, we report a simple process to prepare nanospherical like reduced graphene oxide (NS-rGO) decorated TiO2 nanoparticles (NS-rGO/TiO2) as photocatalysts. This modified TiO2 sample exhibi...

We demonstrate ultrathin self-assembled Cu2MoS4 nanobelts synthesized by using Cu2O as the starting sacrificial template via a hydrothermal method. The nanobelts exhibit strong light absorption over a broad wavelength spectrum, suggesting their potential application as photocatalysts. The photocatalytic activity of nanobelts is evaluated by the degradation of Methyl Orange (MO) dye under visibl...

Constructing a highly efficient bulk-heterojunction is of critical importance to the hybrid organic/inorganic solar cells. Here in this work, we introduce a novel hybrid architecture containing P3HT nanowire and CdSe nanotetrapod as bicontinuous charge channels for holes and electrons, respectively. Compared to the traditionally applied P3HT molecules, the well crystallized P3HT nanowires quali...

To make full use of the solar energy, exploring broad spectrum active photocatalysts has become one of the core issues for photocatalysis. Here we report a novel hexagonal 2H-MoSe2 photocatalyst with ultraviolet (UV)-visible-near infrared (NIR) light response for the first time. The results indicate that the MoSe2 displays excellent photo-absorption and photocatalytic activity in the reduction ...

Methylammonium lead iodide perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) plays an important role in light absorption and carrier transport in efficient organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells. In this Letter, we report the first theoretical estimation of effective masses of photocarriers in CH3NH3PbI3. Effective masses of photogenerated electrons and holes were estimated to be me* = 0.23m0 and mh* = 0.29m0, respect...

We have developed a Quantitative Light Absorption Analysis (QLAA) method to rapidly estimate human lymphocyte concentrations isolated from small volumes of whole blood. Measurements of the light absorption analysis were calibrated for lymphocyte concentration levels using a hemocytometer. To validate the QLAA system, blood samples were collected from 17 healthy donors and lymphocyte absorption ...