Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Professor James Durrant, CBE, FRS

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry

Professor of Photochemistry
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5321j.durrant Website

 
 
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Assistant

 

Miss Lisa Benbow +44 (0)20 7594 5883

 
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Location

 

G22CMolecular Sciences Research HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Corby:2020:10.1039/c9sc06325k,
author = {Corby, S and Francàs, L and Kafizas, A and Durrant, JR},
doi = {10.1039/c9sc06325k},
journal = {Chemical Science},
pages = {2907--2914},
title = {Determining the role of oxygen vacancies in the photoelectrocatalytic performance of WO3 for water oxidation},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sc06325k},
volume = {11},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Oxygen vacancies are common to most metal oxides, whether intentionally incorporated or otherwise, and the study of these defects is of increasing interest for solar water splitting. In this work, we examine nanostructured WO3 photoanodes of varying oxygen content to determine how the concentration of bulk oxygen-vacancy states affects the photocatalytic performance for water oxidation. Using transient optical spectroscopy, we follow the charge carrier recombination kinetics in these samples, from picoseconds to seconds, and examine how differing oxygen vacancy concentrations impact upon these kinetics. We find that samples with an intermediate concentration of vacancies (∼2% of oxygen atoms) afford the greatest photoinduced charge carrier densities, and the slowest recombination kinetics across all timescales studied. This increased yield of photogenerated charges correlates with improved photocurrent densities under simulated sunlight, with both greater and lesser oxygen vacancy concentrations resulting in enhanced recombination losses and poorer J–V performances. Our conclusion, that an optimal – neither too high nor too low – concentration of oxygen vacancies is required for optimum photoelectrochemical performance, is discussed in terms of the competing beneficial and detrimental impact these defects have on charge separation and transport, as well as the implications held for other highly doped materials for photoelectrochemical water oxidation.
AU  - Corby,S
AU  - Francàs,L
AU  - Kafizas,A
AU  - Durrant,JR
DO  - 10.1039/c9sc06325k
EP  - 2914
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2041-6520
SP  - 2907
TI  - Determining the role of oxygen vacancies in the photoelectrocatalytic performance of WO3 for water oxidation
T2  - Chemical Science
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sc06325k
UR  - https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/SC/C9SC06325K#!divAbstract
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/77010
VL  - 11
ER  -
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