We were delighted to see the recent publication by Dr Stoichko Dimitrov, Lecturer in Chemistry at Queen Mary University of London, on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Dots/TiO2 Nanoparticle Composites for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation. Edinburgh Instruments has previously supported Dr Dimitrov with an industry collaboration at the University of Swansea and we are pleased to receive his acknowledgement in this paper.
In this research, the authors use Edinburgh Instruments equipment to study charge transfer between carbon dots and TiO2, with applications in water splitting catalysis. Photoelectrochemical water splitting has long been a goal towards a source of oxygen and hydrogen fuel, and as the planet transitions to green energy it becomes increasingly important. Industrial scale photoelectrochemical water splitting is not viable yet, but there is a great deal of research oriented towards understanding this process and optimising it for the real world.
The researchers used TiO2 as the electrode material and nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NCDs) as photosensitisers to improve the performance of the photoelectrocemical (PEC) cell. The role of the nitrogen-doped carbon dots in enhancing the performance is not fully understood, but this study sheds light on the mechanism using time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) among other techniques. Namely, the authors used an Edinburgh Instruments Lifespec II spectrometer to study the lifetime of the photoinduced charge separated state in TiO2. Comparison between pristine TiO2 and NCD-doped TiO2 clearly shows charge transfer between electrode and sensitiser and helps unravel the mechanism of the PEC cell.
Download the full article at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsanm.9b02412#
Edinburgh Instruments manufacture a variety of spectrometers that are dedicated to the measurement of fluorescence lifetimes using TCSPC. You can view our full range of fluorescence spectrometers here .
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