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Issue 10, 2016
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Improving photoelectrochemical performance of highly-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with cosensitization of PbS and CdS quantum dots

Xiaojiao Zhang,ab  Min Zeng,a  Jiawei Zhang,c  Aimin Songc  and  Shiwei Lin*ac 
Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

a Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Advanced Materials in Tropical Island Resources, College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
E-mail: linsw@hainu.edu.cn

b School of Applied Science and Technology, Hainan Tropical Ocean University, Sanya 572022, China

c School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester, Sackville Street Building, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

Abstract

PbS and CdS quantum dots (QDs) were deposited on TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs) by a sonication-assisted successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (S-SILAR) method. Effects of the composite configuration, QD deposition order, and number of S-SILAR cycles on the photoelectrical properties have been systematically investigated. Depositing the TNTAs with PbS QDs before or after CdS QDs results in TNTAs/PbS/CdS or TNTAs/CdS/PbS configurations. The deposition order has been demonstrated to strongly affect the photoelectrochemical performance, and the TNTAs/PbS/CdS configuration shows the superior performance due to the synergistic effect of the different types of QDs. Studies of the photoelectrical properties of the TNTAs sensitized by single QDs with various number of S-SILAR cycles suggest that PbS decoration can dramatically increase the photocurrent density, and CdS can stabilize the photoelectrochemical behavior. Combining both beneficial effects of these two kinds of QDs, the TNTAs sensitized by 5 cycles PbS and 5 cycles CdS (referred to as TNTAs/PbS(5)/CdS(5)) can achieve the photocurrent density of 0.87 mA cm−2 under a white light source irradiation of 5.9 mW cm−2, corresponding to a record normalized photocurrent of 147 mA W−1. And the photoconversion efficiency can reach 14.3%. Further time-dependent measurement shows that TNTAs/PbS(5)/CdS(5) possesses a stable photoresponse for more than 120 min.

Graphical abstract: Improving photoelectrochemical performance of highly-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with cosensitization of PbS and CdS quantum dots

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Publication details

The article was received on 01 Nov 2015, accepted on 09 Jan 2016 and first published on 14 Jan 2016


Article type: Paper
DOI: 10.1039/C5RA22964B
Citation: RSC Adv., 2016,6, 8118-8126
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    Improving photoelectrochemical performance of highly-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with cosensitization of PbS and CdS quantum dots

    X. Zhang, M. Zeng, J. Zhang, A. Song and S. Lin, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 8118
    DOI: 10.1039/C5RA22964B

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