Towards environment friendly hydrothermally synthesized Li+, Rb+, In3+ intercalated phosphotungstate (PW12O40) thin films

Nadaf, Sameer N. and Patil, Satish S. and Kalantre, Vilasrao A. and Mali, Sawanta S. and Patil, Jyoti V. and Hong, Chang Kook and Patil, Sharadchandra S. and Bhosale, Popatrao N. and Mane, Sambhaji R. (2023) Towards environment friendly hydrothermally synthesized Li+, Rb+, In3+ intercalated phosphotungstate (PW12O40) thin films. Materials, 16 (3). 888. ISSN 1996-1944 (https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16030888)

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Abstract

In the present investigation, a one-step hydrothermal approach is proposed to synthesize Li+, Rb+, and In3+intercalated PW12O40 (PTA) thin films. The photoelectrochemical performance of the deposited Li3PW12O40 (Li−PTA), Rb3PW12O40 (Rb−PTA), and In3PW12O40 (In−PTA) photocathodes were investigated using a two-electrode cell configuration of FTO/Li3PW12O40/(0.1 M I−/I3−)aq./Graphite. The energy band gaps of 2.24, 2.11, and 2.13 eV were observed for the Li−PTA, Rb−PTA, and In−PTA films, respectively, as a function of Li+, Rb+, and In3+. The evolution of the spinal cubic crystal structure with increased crystallite size was observed for Rb+ intercalation within the PTA Keggin structure, which was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a modification in the surface morphology from a rod-like structure to a densely packed, uniform, and interconnected microsphere to small and large-sized microspheres for Li−PTA, Rb−PTA, and In−PTA, respectively. Compositional studies confirmed that the composing elements of Li, Rb, In, P, W, and O ions are well in accordance with their arrangement for Li+, Rb+, In3+, P5+, W6+, and O2− valence states. Furthermore, the J-V performance of the deposited photocathode shows power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 1.25%, 3.03%, and 1.62%, as a function of the incorporation of Li+, Rb+, and In3+ ions. This work offers a one-step hydrothermal approach that is a prominent way to develop Li+, Rb+, and In3+ ions intercalated PTA, i.e., Li3PW12O40, Rb3PW12O40, and In3PW12O40 photocathodes for competent solar energy harvesting.

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