3D single-molecule tracking revealed that the translational diffusion of guest dyes in poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) thin films on glass substrates was confined in a horizontal layer at a distance longer than 300-700 nm from the surface of the substrate. This peculiar long-range effect suggests that the interaction between the host polymer and the interface could affect the properties of polymers at a much longer distance than conventionally estimated.
Developing an efficient photoanode
is critical for obtaining sustainable
hydrogen energy by photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The
performance of a photoanode is usually determined by charge separation
and optical absorption efficiency, which can be enhanced by constructing
a solid-state junction and applying an inverse opal (IO) structure,
respectively. Following such principles, we developed a BiVO4/WO3-IO photoanode with a BiVO4/WO3 junction and an IO layer as an underlayer. Compared with a bare
WO3 photoanode with an onset potential of 0.80 VRHE and a photocurrent of 0.13 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE, the BiVO4/WO3-IO photoanode exhibited much
better PEC performance with an onset potential of 0.46 VRHE and a photocurrent of 0.94 mA/cm2 at 1.23 VRHE. Such a successful combination of two kinds of modification provides
a promising approach to effectively utilize solar energy in visible-light-responsive
photoanodes.
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