A series of composite CdS/TiO2 powders was obtained by nucleation TiO2 on CdS nanoseeds. This combination presents the appropriate band edge position for photocatalytic redox reactions: visible light irradiation allows injection electrons into dark TiO2, increasing lifetimes separated charges. The have been used quantitative photoreduction 4-nitrobenzaldehyde to 4-aminobenzaldehyde, whose forma...

In present work, two-dimensional g-C3N4 was used to modify TiO2 nanorod array photoanodes for CdS quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs), and the improved cell performances were reported. Single crystal TiO2 nanorods are prepared by hydrothermal method on transparent conductive glass and spin-coated with g-C3N4. CdS quantum dots were deposited on the g-C3N4 modified TiO2 photoanodes via su...

The charge dynamics in the double-layered quantum dot sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) was studied to clarify the reason why the cell performance was much improved by a double-layer coating, by using the heterodyne transient grating (HD-TG) and transient absorption methods, based on a previous study for a conventional QDSSC (N. Maeda et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, 11006.) In the double...

The power conversion efficiency of CdSe and CdS quantum dot sensitized solar cells is enhanced by passivation with asymmetrically substituted phthalocyanines. The introduction of the phthalocyanine dye increases the efficiency up to 45% for CdSe and 104% for CdS. The main mechanism causing this improvement is the quantum dot passivation. This study highlights the possibilities of a new generati...

SnO2 nanosheet-structured films were prepared on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate using ZnO nanosheet as template. The as-prepared SnO2 nanosheets contained plenty of nano-voids and were generally vertical to the substrate. TiO2 nanoparticles were homogeneously deposited into the intervals between the SnO2 nanosheets to prepare a hierarchically structured SnO2/TiO2 hybrid film. The hy...

We report an inexpensive TiO2 based quantum dot solar cell (QDSSC) with improved power conversion efficiency prepared by simple techniques. Barium doped zinc sulfide has been successfully deposited on cadmium dots (QDs) successive ion layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique. The is utilized as a passivation in the QDSSC, which helped better charge separation. copper (Cu2S) reduced graph...

Quantum dots (QDs) represent one of the most promising materials for third-generation solar cells due to their potential to boost the photoconversion efficiency beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit. Composite nanocrystals can challenge the current scenario by combining broad spectral response and tailored energy levels to favor charge extraction and reduce energy and charge recombination. We synt...

Tandem "Z-scheme" approaches to solar-to-chemical production afford the ability to independently develop and optimize reductive photocatalysts for CO2 reduction to multicarbon compounds and oxidative photocatalysts for O2 evolution. To connect the two redox processes, molecular redox shuttles, reminiscent of biological electron transfer, offer an additional level of facile chemical tunability t...

For conventional dye or quantum dot sensitized solar cells, which are fabricated using mesoporous films, the inefficient electron transport due to defects such as grain boundaries and surface traps is a major drawback. To simultaneously increase the carrier transport efficiency as well as the surface area, optimal-assembling of hierarchical nanostructures is an attractive approach. Here, a thre...

Fast migration and efficient spatial separation of photogenerated charges in photocatalytic materials are indispensable to solar water splitting reactions. Here, we construct a three-phase heterostructure CdS/PbTiO3/TiO2 by selectively depositing CdS TiO2 at oppositely poled crystal facets PbTiO3 using single-domain ferroelectric PbTiO3. The has matching band edge alignments strong interfacial ...