Photocurrent amplification of graphene intercalation with titanium dioxide in photoelectrochemical devices

Publication date: Available online 20 February 2020Source: Sensors and Actuators A: PhysicalAuthor(s): Qingyuan Liu, Jungyoon Kim, Tianhong CuiAbstractAs a promising solution to renewable energy source and self-powered sensing, photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices have attracted extensive research interests in recent years. In this work, a PEC device is developed by sequentially incorporating graphene and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticle multilayers using layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly. As a mediation layer between the TiO2 nanoparticle film and the gold substrate, compact graphene layer effectively facilitates the separation of electrons and holes, yielding significantly higher quantum efficiency. Dependent on the concentration of TiO2 nanoparticle suspension, graphene intercalation layer enhances more than one order of magnitude photocurrent amplification under UV light illumination, ranging from 12 to 43 times. The low-cost and facile fabrication processes to generate a stable photocurrent output of this device implies its promising potential applications to sensing and energy harvesting.Graphical abstract

Source: Sensors and Actuators A: Physical - February 22, 2020 Category: Physics Source Type: research