1. Electrochemical enhanced betavoltaic cells based on ZrO2@TiO2 nanorod arrays with type-I band alignment.
- Author
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Zheng, Renrong, Ding, Zan, Wang, Weiyu, Wang, Na, Wang, Zhen, Jiang, Tongxin, Li, Xin, Liu, Shichao, Zhang, Lifeng, and San, Haisheng
- Subjects
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DIRECT energy conversion , *NANORODS , *BETA rays , *POWER resources , *MONTE Carlo method , *HETEROJUNCTIONS - Abstract
[Display omitted] • Interaction of beta particles with ECSs was simulated using Monte Carlo method. • ZrO 2 @Ar-TNRAs structure was used as the beta-anode of EBCs. • Photoelectrochemical performance was used to optimize the ECSs. • TiO 2 /ZrO 2 heterojunction with type-I band alignment can enhance the electrochemical redox reaction. Direct energy conversion from beta radiation to electricity using betavoltaic effect is a promising energy conversion technology for a long-time and highly efficient power supply. This work presents an electrochemical betavoltaic cell (EBC), consisting of a beta-anode with TiO 2 nanorod arrays (TNRAs) modified with ZrO 2 nanoparticles, a polyiodide (I −/ I 3 −) electrolyte, and a 63Ni/Ni counter electrode. Free-standing TNRAs structures were fabricated using hydrothermal method and post-annealed in Ar atmosphere to enable a rutile TiO 2 material with excellent electrochemical performance. Monte Carlo (MC) method was used to determine the optimum length (∼2.5 μm) of the TiO 2 nanorods. Investigation on ultraviolet photoelectrochemical performance of EBCs was used to evaluate and optimize the content of ZrO 2 (thickness of ∼10 nm) modified on the TNRAs. The EBCs demonstrated an energy conversion efficiency of 9.27% with an open-circuit voltage of 0.276 V and short-circuit current density of 1.041 μA·cm−2 when using a 10 mCi 63Ni source. The enhanced performance can be ascribed to the three-dimensional ZrO 2 /TiO 2 heterojunction with a large specific area in favor of the interface carrier transfer as well as the suppression of carrier recombination through the type-I band barrier, effectively promoting the electrochemical redox reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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