Carbon nitride doped TiO 2 photoelectrodes for photocatalysts and quantum dot sensitized solar cells

Abstract In present report, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) modified TiO 2 mesoporous photoelectrodes were prepared and applied both as photoanodes for quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) and as photocatalysts for photodegradation of organic pollutant using Rhodamine B as pollutant model. Compared with TiO 2 mesoporous photoelectrodes, the g-C 3 N 4 modified TiO 2 photoelectrodes exhibited obvious improvement in QDSSC device performances and photocatalytic activities. By optimizing the loading amount of g-C 3 N 4 , the champion power conversion efficiency of 2.91% was achieved using CdS QDs as sensitizer, showing 29.3% improvement compared with that of TiO 2 electrodes. Meanwhile, the present photoelectrodes showed the excellent ability of photodegradation (96.3%) compared with TiO 2 photo- electrodes. The improved behaviors of g-C 3 N 4 modified TiO 2 photoelectrodes were attributed to the formation of type II alignment between g-C 3 N 4 and TiO 2 , which accelerated the separation of photogenerated carriers. Present work showed the multifunctional applications of g-C 3 N 4 /TiO 2 photoelectrodes in optoelectrical conversion and photocatalyst.