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Surface photovoltage inversion and photocatalytic properties of PbI2 microcrystals under sub-bandgap illumination

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Abstract

Surface photovoltage inversion was found in PbI2 microcrystals, manifested as a significant increase in the absolute value of surface barrier height under sub-bandgap illumination. The corresponding surface states located at 0.43 eV above the valence band was detected, and the magnitude of photovoltage inversion was found to increase with increasing applied field strength. Besides, transient surface photovoltage responses and the time constants of the relaxation showed a dependence on the wavelength of illumination. When irradiated with 518–632 nm, the exciton together with the lead ion vacancy caused the population of holes in the surface state; while under 700-nm light irradiation, holes depopulation occurred on the surface. Transient surface photovoltage results show that the relaxation of the sub-bandgap surface photovoltage is exponential with long time constant. The different charge transportation processes agree well with the photocatalytic degradation of MO experiments under different wavelength irradiation. It is revealed that the exciton and the surface states could significantly affect the movement of photogenerated charge carriers, which lead to different degradation results of MO. These findings demonstrate a model involving photostimulated population of surface states for the study of surfaces of wide energy gap semiconductors, which shows the highly selective control of photogenerated charge carriers’ behaviors by tuning the wavelength of irradiation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by National Magnetic Confinement Fusion Science Program (2011GB112001, 2013GB110001); Program of International S&T Cooperation (2013DFA51050); National Natural Science Foundation of China (51271155, 51377138, 51305364); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWJTU2682016ZDPY10, 2682013CX004, SWJTU11ZT31, 2682013CX004); Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2011JY0031, 2011JY0130, 2015JY0137); New Teachers’ Fund for Doctor Stations, Ministry of Education (20120184120024); the 863 Program (No. 2014AA032701).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology of Materials (Ministry of Education of China), Superconductivity and New Energy R&D Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Mail Stop 165#, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Wenli Ma, Feng Yang, Junrong Chen, Ling Yuan, Dong Xie, Yong Zhao, Yong Zhang & Jinfang Peng

  2. School of Physical Science and Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, Sichuan, China

    Wenli Ma, Feng Yang & Yong Zhao

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Yushu Wang

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  1. Wenli Ma
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  2. Feng Yang
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Correspondence to Feng Yang or Yong Zhao.

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Ma, W., Yang, F., Wang, Y. et al. Surface photovoltage inversion and photocatalytic properties of PbI2 microcrystals under sub-bandgap illumination. J Mater Sci 52, 9696–9708 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1123-5

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