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Research Article

Tuned single atom coordination structures mediated by polarization force and sulfur anions for photovoltaics

Hongyu Jing1,2,§, Zhengyan Zhao1,§, Chunyang Zhang1, Wei Liu1, Danyang Wu1, Chao Zhu3( ), Ce Hao1, Jiangwei Zhang4( ), Yantao Shi1( )
State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Department of ChemistrySchool of Chemical Engineering Dalian University of TechnologyDalian 116024 China
Department of ChemistryTsinghua UniversityBeijing 100084 China
SEU-FEI Nano-Pico CenterKey Laboratory of MEMS of Ministry of EducationCollaborative Innovation Center for Micro/Nano FabricationDevice and System Southeast UniversityNanjing 210096 China
State Key Laboratory of CatalysisDalian Institute of Chemical Physics Chinese Academy of SciencesDalian 116023 China

§ Hongyu Jing and Zhengyan Zhao contributed equally to this work.

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Abstract

Impeding high temperature sintering is challengeable for synthesis of carbon-supported single-atom catalysts (C-SACs), which requires high-cost precursor and strictly-controlled procedures. Herein, by virtue of the ultrastrong polarity of salt melts, sintering of metal atoms is effectively suppressed. Meanwhile, doping with inorganic sulfur anions not only produces sufficient anchoring sites to achieve high loading of atomically dispersed Co up to 13.85 wt.%, but also enables their electronic and geometric structures to be well tuned. When served as a cathode catalyst in dye-sensitized solar cells, the C-SAC with Co-N4-S2 moieties exhibits high activity towards the iodide reduction reaction (IRR), achieving a higher power conversion efficiency than that of conventional Pt counterpart. Density function theory (DFT) calculations revealed that the superior IRR activity was ascribed to the unique structure of Co-N4-S2 moieties with lower reaction barriers and moderate binding energy of iodine on the Co center, which was beneficial to I2 dissociation.

Keywords

dye-sensitized solar cellsinorganic sulfur ionscoordination structure regulatinganti-sintering

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Nano Research
Volume 14 Issue 11,
November 2021
Pages 4025-4032
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-021-3331-1
Cite this article:
Jing H, Zhao Z, Zhang C, et al. Tuned single atom coordination structures mediated by polarization force and sulfur anions for photovoltaics. Nano Research, 2021, 14(11): 4025-4032. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3331-1
Topics:
Synthesis (chemical)

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Received: 09 December 2020
Revised: 10 January 2021
Accepted: 11 January 2021
Published: 01 April 2021
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
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