The manipulation of photoactivity of PbCrO4 through shape-controlled electrochemical growth

Abstract

Photoreactions offer significant potential for solar energy utilization and storage. However, achieving practical applications of photoreactions requires high photoconversion efficiency, which is determined by the performance of the photocatalyst. This study investigates shape control as an effective strategy for enhancing the photoactivity of photocatalysts, specifically applied to PbCrO4 photocatalysts. During the electrochemical growth process, which enables the synthesis of single-crystalline PbCrO4 microrods, the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate or KCl as capping agents facilitated morphological control, resulting in the formation of nanorods or short polyhedra, respectively. It was demonstrated that these morphological transformations resulted from variations in the electrochemical growth rate caused by the adsorption of capping agents. The nanorods exhibited significantly enhanced photoactivity compared to the microrods, whereas the short polyhedra showed reduced photoactivity. Through ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) analysis, photoluminescence measurements, and open-circuit photovoltage decay analysis, it was revealed that the observed differences in photocatalytic performance are primarily attributed to variations in the carrier diffusion length. This study proposes an effective approach to improving the photoactivity of PbCrO4, which is essential for its practical application as a photocatalyst.