Modification of TiO2 Nanoparticles with Organodiboron Molecules Inducing Stable Surface Ti3+ Complex
Yang Cao,
Peng Zhou,
Yongguang Tu,
Zheng Liu,
Bo-Wei Dong,
Aryan Azad,
Dongge Ma,
Dong Wang,
Xu Zhang,
Yang Yang,
Shang-Da Jiang,
Rui Zhu,
Shaojun Guo,
Fanyang Mo,
Wanhong Ma
Affiliations
Yang Cao
Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Peng Zhou
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yongguang Tu
State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics & Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Shaanxi Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, China
Zheng Liu
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Bo-Wei Dong
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Aryan Azad
Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Dongge Ma
School of Science, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Dong Wang
Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Xu Zhang
Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA 91330, USA
Yang Yang
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Shang-Da Jiang
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Rui Zhu
State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Frontiers Science Center for Nano-optoelectronics & Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China
Shaojun Guo
Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Fanyang Mo
Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Jiangsu Donghai Silicon Industry S&T Innovation Center, Donghai County, Jiangsu 222300, China; Corresponding author
Wanhong Ma
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Photochemistry, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Summary: As one of the most promising semiconductor oxide materials, titanium dioxide (TiO2) absorbs UV light but not visible light. To address this limitation, the introduction of Ti3+ defects represents a common strategy to render TiO2 visible-light responsive. Unfortunately, current hurdles in Ti3+ generation technologies impeded the widespread application of Ti3+ modified materials. Herein, we demonstrate a simple and mechanistically distinct approach to generating abundant surface-Ti3+ sites without leaving behind oxygen vacancy and sacrificing one-off electron donors. In particular, upon adsorption of organodiboron reagents onto TiO2 nanoparticles, spontaneous electron injection from the diboron-bound O2− site to adjacent Ti4+ site leads to an extremely stable blue surface Ti3+‒O−· complex. Notably, this defect generation protocol is also applicable to other semiconductor oxides including ZnO, SnO2, Nb2O5, and In2O3. Furthermore, the as-prepared photoelectronic device using this strategy affords 103-fold higher visible light response and the fabricated perovskite solar cell shows an enhanced performance. : Chemistry; Surface Chemistry; Materials Science; Materials Chemistry; Energy Materials Subject Areas: Chemistry, Surface Chemistry, Materials Science, Materials Chemistry, Energy Materials
