UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Boosting Photoelectrochemical Activity

Xu, R; Wen, L; Wang, Z; Zhao, H; Xu, S; Mi, Y; Xu, Y; ... Lei, Y; + view all (2017) Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Boosting Photoelectrochemical Activity. ACS Nano , 11 (7) pp. 7382-7389. 10.1021/acsnano.7b03633. Green open access

[thumbnail of Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Boosting Photoelectrochemical Activity.pdf]
Preview
Text
Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Boosting Photoelectrochemical Activity.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Plasmonic nanostructures have been widely incorporated into different semiconductor materials to improve solar energy conversion. An important point is how to manipulate the incident light so that more light can be efficiently scattered and absorbed within the semiconductors. Here, by using a tunable three-dimensional Au pillar/truncated-pyramid (PTP) array as a plasmonic coupler, a superior optical absorption of about 95% within a wide wavelength range is demonstrated from an assembled CdS/Au PTP photoanode. Based on incident photon to current efficiency measurements and the corresponding finite difference time domain simulations, it is concluded that the enhancement is mainly attributed to an appropriate spectral complementation between surface plasmon resonance modes and photonic modes in the Au PTP structure over the operational spectrum. Because both of them are wavelength-dependent, the Au PTP profile and CdS thickness are further adjusted to take full advantage of the complementary effect, and subsequently, an angle-independent photocurrent with an enhancement of about 400% was obtained. The designed plasmonic PTP nanostructure of Au is highly robust, and it could be easily extended to other plasmonic metals equipped with semiconductor thin films for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells.

Type: Article
Title: Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Nanostructure Design for Boosting Photoelectrochemical Activity
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b03633
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.7b03633
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: photonic mode, surface plasmon resonance, three-dimensional nanostructure, photoelectrochemical, CdS/Au
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10076160
Downloads since deposit
227Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item