In order to solve the 'ultraviolet (UV) filtering problem' caused by traditional sandwich-type structure in photoelectrochemical (PEC) UV detector, we design a special electrode based on stainless steel mesh, which integrates the light absorption layer and the electron collection electrode in a simple way. In combination with an UV-transparent quartz substrate, UV light can directly reach the active material. The improved detector shows good visible-blind, selfpowered, and linear response characteristics. The serious recombination caused by metal electrode is suppressed by depositing a barrier layer. The optimized device exhibits a high photoresponse of 0.103 A W −1 at 296 nm, a short recovery time of 250 ms, and very sensitive switching ability. Furthermore, the response range of the detector is expanded from 300 to 400 nm to the full near-UV region. Our work provides an efficient strategy to solve the key problem of the PEC UV detector.
The FTO/ITO transparent conductive films currently used in photoelectrochemical devices limit performance improvement due to their low conductivity, poor flexibility, and inability to transmit UV light. Ag nanowire-based films are a very promising alternative to address these problems, and are considered to be the next generation in transparent conductive film. Here, we prepared a cross-linked nano-network composed of ultra-long Ag nanowires by a special physical template method. The obtained Ag nanowire transparent conductive film has a transmittance of over 80% in a wide range of 200 nm–900 nm, a sheet resistance as small as 5.2 Ω/sq, and can be easily transferred to various substrates without damage. These results have obvious advantages over Ag nanowire films obtained by traditional chemical methods. Considering the special requirements of photoelectrochemical devices, we have multifunctionally enhanced the film by a TiO2 layer. The heat-resistant temperature of transparent conductive film was increased from 375 °C to 485 °C, and the mechanical stability was also significantly improved. The presence of the multifunctional layer is expected to suppress the carrier recombination in self-powered photoelectrochemical devices and improve the electron diffusion in the longitudinal direction of the electrode, while serving as a seed layer to grow active materials. The high-quality Ag nanowire network and functional layer synergize to obtain a UV–Visible transparent conductive film with good light transmittance, conductivity, and stability. We believe that it can play an important role in improving the performance of photoelectrochemical devices, especially the UV devices.
The photoelectrochemical (PEC) UV detector based on the traditional transparent conductive electrode (TCE) has a narrow response range due to the UV filtering effect. Here we prepared an Ag nanowire...
The traditional Ag nanowire preparation means that it cannot meet the demanding requirements of photoelectrochemical devices due to the undesirable conductivity, difficulty in compounding, and poor heat resistance. Here, we prepared an Ag nanonetwork with superior properties using a special template method based on electrospinning technology. The transparent conductive films based on Ag nanonetworks have good transmittance in a wide range from ultraviolet to visible. It is important that the films have high operability and are easy to be compounded with other materials. After compounding with high-melting-point W metal, the heat-resistance temperature of the W/Ag composite transparent conductive films is increased by 100 °C to 460 °C, and the light transmission and electrical conductivity of the films are not significantly affected. All experimental phenomena in the study are analyzed theoretically. This research can provide an important idea for the metal nanowire electrode, which is difficult to be applied to the photoelectrochemical devices.
The interest in investigating hollow core–shell nanostructures was stimulated by their intrinsic advantage in light absorption and photocarrier separation for promising applications in photoelectrochemical devices. Here, SnO2@TiO2 core–shell hierarchical
tubular structure was designed and prepared via a low-temperature solution route using carbon nanofibers as templates. The heterostructure consists of SnO2 nanotubes and TiO2 nanocones, which facilities photocarrier separation and transport by built-in electric field
at their interface, and direct transport path served by SnO2 nanotubes. The large specific surface area was also believed to contribute to improve performance by providing more active sites for chemical reactions. After assembling into a photoelectrochemical-type ultraviolet photodetector,
the detector exhibits a high short-circuit photocurrent density of 870 μA cm–2 under ultraviolet illumination (λ = 365 nm) of 35 mW cm–2 without bias voltage. The photosensitivity can reach up to 3781, and the feature response time was in
microseconds, 33 ms for rise process and 13 ms for decay process. It is believed that this structure with combined advantageous features is extendable to other photoelectrochemical cases, such as dye-sensitized solar cells and artificial photosynthesis.
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