Solar valuable chemical-conversion is being actively studied for a sustainable environment. Organic dye-sensitized semiconductor systems are suitable due to their easy band gap tuning, broad absorption spectrum, facile fabrication, and relatively low-priced compared to metal complexes to convert light to valuable substances effectively and stably. However, charge transfer from biomass to oxidized organic dye is relatively slow in typical dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells, resulting in remarkably low current density, unlike photovoltaics. Hence, organic dye-sensitized photoanode with a redox mediator is passivated by Ni foil which can only extract the holes from the photovoltaic system and directly oxidize biomass. Furthermore, organic dyes are researched to generate high current and voltage related to conversion yield and selectivity, so we designed IDT-1−4 organic dyes. Significantly, the methyl functional group is introduced to the acceptor unit to prevent loss of the photovoltage through slow recombination from TiO2 to oxidized organic dyes. This study shows that biomass can be oxidized and degraded with low applied bias in a short reaction time.

Photo-electro-upcycling of biomass via passivated dye-sensitized photoanode

Where thousands of chemistry professionals meet to share ideas and advance scientific and technical knowledge. Spring 2023 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch at the end of March.

ACS Spring 2023

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.