Surface Chemistry-Modulated Photo electrochemistry of Colloidal Nanocrystal Layers for Solar Water Splitting

The on-going demands for a clean and sustainable energy and its utilization in an environmental-friendly and optimized manner define a vector that guide the current scientific era. Harvesting the abundant solar light and converting it to a hydrogen fuel by photo-electrochemical water splitting with non-toxic semiconducting photocatalyst materials is a decent route to comply these demands. The efficiency and performance issues of these materials can be confronted by going down to the nanoscale region, accompanied with wise structural engineering of the nanocrystals and of their interfacial properties. In the case of photoelectrochemical-catalyzed water splitting, the role of the interfaces of nanocrystal photoelectrodes is focal and can be optimized by, for example, the incorporation of suitable functional molecules on the surfaces of the materials. The focus is on how the in- scale dimensions and wide diversity and versatility of chemical structures and physicochemical properties of organic molecules should be utilized to control and optimize the electronic and energetic characteristics of the nanocrystal materials and their performance in photoelectrochemical water splitting