Improving photoelectrochemical performance on quantum dots co-sensitized TiO2 nanotube arrays using ZnO energy barrier by atomic layer deposition

PbS and CdS quantum dots (QDs) have been deposited onto TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs) in turn via a sonication-assisted successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. This method could uniformly decorate TNTAs with QDs, avoiding QDs aggregation at the mouth of TiO2 nanotube. The loading amounts of QDs on TNTAs could be controlled by adjusting the TNTAs length. Under one sun illumination, the QDs co-sensitized TNTAs (TNTAs/QDs) with the length of about 2.4 mu m displayed the highest photocurrent of 4.32 mA cm(-2), which is 27 times higher than that of the bare TNTAs. Introduction of a thin ZnO energy barrier by atomic layer deposition (ALD) between the TNTAs and QDs can further improve the photocurrent of TNTAs/QDs. And the TNTAs/QDs with 10 ALD cycles of ZnO interlayer exhibits the highest photocurrent of 5.24 mA cm(-2) and best photoconversion efficiency of 4.9%, a more than 20% enhancement over the bare TNTAs/QDs. Such enhanced photoelectrochemical performance may be ascribed to the increased amounts of QDs on the TNTAs due to the introduction of ZnO interlayer. The benefits of ALD layers play a crucial role in development and optimization of high-performance photoelectrodes in the near future. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.