Effective Photocurrent Enhancement in Nanostructured CuO by Organic Dye Sensitization: Studies on Charge Transfer Kinetics

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b10024
• Publication Date: 2018-02-06T18:18:29Z
• Authors: Priyanka Marathey; Ranjan K. Pati; Indrajit Mukhopad...; Abhijit Ray
• Keywords: Photocurrent; Photocathode; Photoelectrochemistry; Charge carrier; Photoconductivity; Visible spectrum

Mercurochrome-sensitized nanostructured CuO grown directly on Cu has been used as efficient photocathode in photoelectrochemical cell. The photocurrent density of the sensitized electrode is found to enhance from −1 mA/cm2 (unsensitized) −2.2 (dye for 24 h) at 0 V vs RHE under AM1.5G artificial solar illumination aqueous 0.5 M Na2SO4 solution. photoluminescence spectra demonstrated a strong absorption 465 nm by mercurochrome. Subsequent transfer photoexcited electrons conduction band enhances density. An incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) 8% observed visible region. This so far highest reported value p-type based organic dye-sensitized photocathode. dye thus potential photoreduction with higher Faradaic various redox species due additional carrier injection.