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Improved plasmon-assisted photoelectric conversion efficiency across entire ultraviolet–visible region based on antenna-on zinc oxide/silver three-dimensional nanostructured films

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Abstract

ZnO has received tremendous attention for applications in photoelectrochemical water splitting, photocatalysis, and photovoltaic devices. However, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of ZnO is limited by the rapid recombination of photoexcited electron–hole pairs and the wide band gap, which allows only a small fraction of the solar spectrum to be absorbed. Recently, substantial research efforts have aimed to increase the photoelectric conversion efficiency across the entire ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectrum by coupling semiconductors such as ZnO with noble metal nanoparticles (NPs). In this study, we compare the performance of a pure ZnO film and ZnO/Ag nanostructured films as photoelectrodes.We show that under broad-spectrum UV–vis illumination, the photocurrent generated in the ZnO/Ag three-dimensional (3D) nanostructured films increases 3.75 times relative to the photocurrent generated in the pure ZnO films. We attribute the high photocurrent to the electric-field enhancement associated with the localized surface plasmon resonance of the Ag NPs, which are present at a high density in the 3D nanostructured films, and to the creation of photoexcited hot electrons in Ag that are transferred to ZnO, promoting electron–hole pair separation. We propose a mechanism to explain the observed enhancement of the photoelectric conversion efficiency.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 61434002 and 11611540333), the Special Funds of Shanxi Scholars Program, the National key Research and Development Plan of China, the Ministry of Education of China (No. IRT1156), and the Sanjin Scholar Project.

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  1. Lijuan Yan and Yang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Materials Science of Shanxi Normal University & Key Laboratory of Magnetic Molecules and Magnetic Information Materials of Ministry of Education, Linfen, 041004, China

    Lijuan Yan, Yaning Yan, Lanfang Wang, Juan Han, Yanan Wang, Guowei Zhou & Xiaohong Xu

  2. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo (SUNY), Buffalo, New York, 14260-4200, USA

    Yang Liu & Mark T. Swihart

  3. Research Institute of Materials Science of Shanxi Normal University, Linfen, 041004, China

    Xiaohong Xu

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  1. Lijuan Yan
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Correspondence to Xiaohong Xu.

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12274_2017_1663_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Improved plasmon-assisted photoelectric conversion efficiency across entire ultraviolet–visible region based on antenna-on zinc oxide/silver three-dimensional nanostructured films

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Yan, L., Liu, Y., Yan, Y. et al. Improved plasmon-assisted photoelectric conversion efficiency across entire ultraviolet–visible region based on antenna-on zinc oxide/silver three-dimensional nanostructured films. Nano Res. 11, 520–529 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1663-7

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