Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis
Quasi-1D cadmium chalcogenide quantum rods (QRs) are benchmark semiconductor materials that are combined with noble metals to constitute QR heterostructures for efficient photocatalysis. However, the high toxicity of cadmium and cost of noble metals are the main obstacles to their widespread use. He...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Wiley - V C H Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
2018
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| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE160100589 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69583 |
| _version_ | 1848762079101583360 |
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| author | Chen, D. Zhang, H. Li, Y. Pang, Y. Yin, Z. Sun, Hongqi Zhang, L. Wang, Shaobin Saunders, M. Barker, E. Jia, Guohua |
| author_facet | Chen, D. Zhang, H. Li, Y. Pang, Y. Yin, Z. Sun, Hongqi Zhang, L. Wang, Shaobin Saunders, M. Barker, E. Jia, Guohua |
| author_sort | Chen, D. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Quasi-1D cadmium chalcogenide quantum rods (QRs) are benchmark semiconductor materials that are combined with noble metals to constitute QR heterostructures for efficient photocatalysis. However, the high toxicity of cadmium and cost of noble metals are the main obstacles to their widespread use. Herein, a facile colloidal synthetic approach is reported that leads to the spontaneous formation of cadmium-free alloyed ZnSx Se1-x QRs from polydisperse ZnSe nanowires by alkylthiol etching. The obtained non-noble-metal ZnSx Se1-x QRs can not only be directly adopted as efficient photocatalysts for water oxidation, showing a striking oxygen evolution capability of 3000 µmol g-1 h-1 , but also be utilized to prepare QR-sensitized TiO2 photoanodes which present enhanced photo-electrochemical (PEC) activity. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations reveal that alloyed ZnSx Se1-x QRs have highly active Zn sites on the (100) surface and reduced energy barrier for oxygen evolution, which in turn, are beneficial to their outstanding photocatalytic and PEC activities. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:41:51Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-69583 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:41:51Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Wiley - V C H Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-695832022-09-06T03:03:27Z Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis Chen, D. Zhang, H. Li, Y. Pang, Y. Yin, Z. Sun, Hongqi Zhang, L. Wang, Shaobin Saunders, M. Barker, E. Jia, Guohua Quasi-1D cadmium chalcogenide quantum rods (QRs) are benchmark semiconductor materials that are combined with noble metals to constitute QR heterostructures for efficient photocatalysis. However, the high toxicity of cadmium and cost of noble metals are the main obstacles to their widespread use. Herein, a facile colloidal synthetic approach is reported that leads to the spontaneous formation of cadmium-free alloyed ZnSx Se1-x QRs from polydisperse ZnSe nanowires by alkylthiol etching. The obtained non-noble-metal ZnSx Se1-x QRs can not only be directly adopted as efficient photocatalysts for water oxidation, showing a striking oxygen evolution capability of 3000 µmol g-1 h-1 , but also be utilized to prepare QR-sensitized TiO2 photoanodes which present enhanced photo-electrochemical (PEC) activity. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations reveal that alloyed ZnSx Se1-x QRs have highly active Zn sites on the (100) surface and reduced energy barrier for oxygen evolution, which in turn, are beneficial to their outstanding photocatalytic and PEC activities. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69583 10.1002/adma.201803351 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE160100589 Wiley - V C H Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Chen, D. Zhang, H. Li, Y. Pang, Y. Yin, Z. Sun, Hongqi Zhang, L. Wang, Shaobin Saunders, M. Barker, E. Jia, Guohua Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis |
| title | Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis |
| title_full | Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis |
| title_fullStr | Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis |
| title_short | Spontaneous Formation of Noble- and Heavy-Metal-Free Alloyed Semiconductor Quantum Rods for Efficient Photocatalysis |
| title_sort | spontaneous formation of noble- and heavy-metal-free alloyed semiconductor quantum rods for efficient photocatalysis |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE160100589 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69583 |