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Updated: May 28, 2025

Harvesting Solar Energy by Means of Charge-Separating Nanocrystals and Their Solids
Published on: August 23, 2012
Lattice atom-bridged chemical bond interface facilitates charge transfer for boosted photoelectric response
Mingwang Liu1, Wenhong Yang1, Runshi Xiao1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, International Joint Research Center for Intelligent Biosensing Technology and Health, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
Abstract:
The construction of chemical bonds at heterojunction interfaces currently presents a promising avenue for enhancing photogenerated carrier interfacial transfer. However, the deliberate modulation of these interfacial chemical bonds remains a significant challenge. In this study, we successfully established a p-n junction composed of atomic-level Pt-doped CeO2 and 2D metalloporphyrins metal-organic framework nanosheets (Pt-CeO2/CuTCPP(Fe)), which enables the realization of photoelectric enhancement by regulating the interfacial Fe-O bond and optimizing the built-in electric field. Atomic-level Pt doping in CeO2 leads to an increased density of oxygen vacancies and lattice mutation, which induces a transition in interfacial Fe-O bonds from adsorbed oxygen (Fe-OA) to lattice oxygen (Fe-OL). This transition changes the interfacial charge flow pathway from Fe-OA-Ce to Fe-OL, effectively reducing the carrier transport distance along the atomic-level charge transport highway. This results in a 2.5-fold enhancement in photoelectric performance compared with the CeO2/CuTCPP(Fe). Furthermore, leveraging the peroxidase-like activity of the p-n junction, we employed this functional heterojunction interface to develop a photoelectrochemical immunoassay for the sensitive detection of prostate-specific antigens.
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