Visible light mediated self-powered sensing based on target induced recombination of photogenerated carriers.

Self-powered sensing platforms have received widespread attention in areas such as portable, wearable and point-of-care devices. Here we reported visible light mediated self-powered electrochemical sensing based on target induced recombination of photogenerated carriers, which has highly sensitive to detect copper ions concentration. We utilized the recombination of photogenerated carriers mechanism to design visible light-responsive Fe 2 O 3 -CdS n-n heterojunction as photoanode material, which greatly improved the problem of output energy in photocatalytic self-powered sensors. Expectedly, our proposed visible light mediated self-powered electrochemical system has high separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers, which is 8.4 times that in presence of Cu2+. Furthermore, this self-powered electrochemical sensing platform used Cu2+ induced recombination of photogenerated carriers, showed a clear linear relationship from 1 nM to 5000 nM with an acceptable detection limit of 0.4 nM. This self-powered electrochemical sensing platform with excellent selectivity, accredited reproducibility and believable stability exhibited promising prospects in developing portable sensing devices and detection chip for real-time and rapid monitoring of Cu2+. ga1 • We designed self-powered sensor based on recombination of photogenerated carriers. • Visible light-responsive Fe 2 O 3 -CdS n-n heterojunction as photoanode were reported. • The target induces the recombination of photogenerated carriers in heterojunction. • Fe 2 O 3 -CdS n-n heterojunction have high carrier separation efficiency. • The self-powered electrochemical sensor can detect Cu2+ in water environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]