The role of (photo)electrochemistry in the rational design of hybrid conducting polymer/semiconductor assemblies: From fundamental concepts to practical applications

Hybrid materials based on conducting polymers (CPs) and inorganic semiconductors (SCs) undoubtedly constitute one of the most promising classes of new materials. The spectacular progress in this research topic has been driven by the development of novel synthetic procedures and by the large variety of applications. Beyond scientific and fundamental interest, such hybrid assemblies are attractive from technological perspectives as well, for example, in energy conversion and storage, electronics, catalysis, and optics. This article is designed to be a critical overview for the polymer materials science community on how to employ electrosynthetic methods to obtain hybrid materials with well-designed composition and morphology. As this review illustrates, (photo)electrochemical approaches are versatile and powerful tools in the preparation of conjugated polymer-based composites, containing both elemental and compound semiconductors. Hybridization of CPs with metal oxides (TiO2, WO3, ZnO, NiO, Cu2O, CuO, V2O5, Fe2O3, Fe3O4, MnO2, SnO2, RuO2), metal chalcogenides (CdS, CdTe, CdSe, Bi2S3), and carbon nanomaterials (nanotubes, graphene, graphene oxide) is presented. We demonstrate that both composition and nanoscale architecture of the hybrid assemblies can be precisely controlled by employing carefully designed electrochemical methods. To achieve the goal of popularizing electro- and photoelectrosynthetic procedures, particular attention will be paid to compare the as-synthesized assemblies with their counterparts obtained from other procedures. The most prominent applications of these electrosynthesized materials are highlighted, with particular focus on energy related utilization pathways. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.