Issue 41, 2016

Multidomain simulations of coated ferroelectrics exhibiting spatially selective photocatalytic activity with high internal quantum efficiencies

Abstract

The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of multidomain ferroelectric BaTiO3 coated with thin (10 nm) anatase TiO2 films has been modeled in two dimensions, using physically reasonable property values of each material. The minority carrier current density averaged across the entire surface, composed of equal portions of positively and negatively polarized domains separated by 180° boundaries, is similar to that reported previously for a single negatively polarized domain (modeled in one dimension). This indicates that photogenerated carriers driven away from the surface in one domain can be collected at the surface of the neighboring domain and participate in surface reactivity. For a wide range of physically reasonable domain widths, from approximately 100 to 400 nm, the limiting IQE is more than 90% of the maximum value, and far exceeds that for Z-scheme domain reactivity, where the carriers driven away from the surface would recombine in the bulk. When the potential and the domain width of alternating positively and negatively polarized domains are optimized, the balancing reduction and oxidation currents occur on the surface with a total limiting IQE as high as 90%, implying there exists significant room for improvement of photocatalysts using spatially varying internal fields at or near the reactive surface.

Graphical abstract: Multidomain simulations of coated ferroelectrics exhibiting spatially selective photocatalytic activity with high internal quantum efficiencies

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
17 Aug 2016
Accepted
22 Sep 2016
First published
22 Sep 2016

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016,4, 16085-16093

Multidomain simulations of coated ferroelectrics exhibiting spatially selective photocatalytic activity with high internal quantum efficiencies

J. J. Glickstein, P. A. Salvador and G. S. Rohrer, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 16085 DOI: 10.1039/C6TA07083C

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