Speaker
Carly Jewell
Speaker's Institution
Colorado State University
Date
2020-12-01
Time
4:00 PM
Location
Virtual Research Seminar
Mixer Time
Mixer Time
Calendar (ICS) Event
Additional Information

Research Seminar

One of the challenges facing the world is the need to fulfill the growing demand for energy via renewable resources while minimizing CO2 emissions. Photoelectrochemical water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen is one such system capable of renewable solar energy conversion. Previously, we developed a water-oxidation photoanode consisting of nanostructured SnO2 coated with a perylene diimide dye derivative (N,N´-bis(phosphonomethyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenediimide, PMPDI) and a CoOx water oxidation catalyst. Surprisingly, the addition of the CoOx catalyst results in an approximately 50% decrease in photocurrent due, apparently, to limitations imposed by recombination and trap states at the CoOx/SnO2 interface. Here, we show the addition of an alumina overlayer deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the PMPDI dye designed to reduce recombination caused by the addition of CoOx. Under optimized alumina deposition conditions, steady-state photocurrent was improved approximately 3-fold over the system without alumina. However, the addition of the CoOx water-oxidation catalyst still results in a in photocurrent in comparison to the SnO2/PMPDI/AlOx system without CoOx. The improvements afforded by the alumina ALD, the negative impact of the catalyst addition, as well as the implications for future study of this and related systems will be discussed.

Zoom Link

Meeting ID: 873 7512 6158
Passcode: 9b01273

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