화학공학소재연구정보센터
Materials Chemistry and Physics, Vol.200, 70-77, 2017
Can a light harvesting material be always common in photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications?
Nanomaterials and nanohybrids hold promising potency to enhance the performance of photovoltaic as well as photocatalytic efficiency by improving both light trapping and photo-carrier collection. In the present study, we have synthesized Protoporphyrin IX-Titanium dioxide (PP-TiO2) nanohybrid as a model light harvesting nanohybrid for potential applications in photovoltaics and photocatalytic devices. We observed that the light harvesting nanohybrid shows efficient photocatalytic activity when copper (II) ion is centrally located within the porphyrin moiety. In contrast, presence of copper (II) ion within the porphyrin moiety decreases photovoltaic efficiencies. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and steady-state absorption and emission spectroscopies have been used to analyze the structural details and optical properties of this nanohybrid. Time-resolved fluorescence technique has been applied to study the ultrafast dynamics which is key to photocatalytic and photovoltaic activities. The reason behind the outstanding photocatalytic performance of the nanohybrid after copper metalation, is found to have additional stability against photobleaching while enhanced back electron transfer after copper metalation decreases its photovoltaic efficiency. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.