Search

Oxygen-deficient TiO2-based composites have attracted widespread attention due to their promoted light-harvesting capacity and energy conversion efficiency, beneficial for water splitting. Despite being a facile, secure-safe and undefiled route for preparing blackened TiO2, the Al-reduction method has not been adopted for preparing TiO2/TiO2−x/CdS composite films. Herein, TiO2/TiO2−x/CdS composite nanorods were successfully fabricated by combining hydrothermal, Al-reduction and chemical bath deposition (CBD) techniques. Enhanced visible-light absorption and photoelectrochemical performances have been achieved using TiO2/TiO2−x/CdS heterojunction nanorods. The photocurrent density of TiO2/TiO2−x/CdS was obtained to be 7.75 mA cm−2 at 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl under AM 1.5 G illumination, which was 77.5-fold and 12.1-fold higher than those of bare TiO2 and CdS, respectively. This work may offer new insights for realizing TiO2-based composites with improved solar absorption for photoelectrochemical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of graphene transparent conductive films (TCFs) can be greatly enhanced by introducing an antireflection (AR) nanostructure. We directly deposited graphene on silica nanosphere/acid-catalyzed silica layer (SNS/a-SL) AR nanostructure by assisted catalysis of Cu nanoparticles in ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition to obtain graphene composite TCFs. By introducing the SNS/a-SL AR nanostructure, the transmittance and sheet resistance of graphene TCFs achieved were 89.65% and 2.04 kΩ sq−1, respectively. Compared to graphene films, the transmittance was improved by 5.5% and sheet resistance was reduced by 0.44 kΩ sq−1. The SNS/a-SL AR nanostructure effectively reduced reflection from the substrates owing to the structure of gradient refractive index and exhibited good stability at high temperatures because of the existence of a-SL. The AR nanostructure also could provide more electronic transport channels to achieve regulation of the electrical property of graphene TCFs. This method simultaneously improves the transmittance and conductivity of graphene TCFs by a facile process, providing an important method to prepare graphene TCFs with excellent performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]