MOSCOW, September 19. Tomsk Polytechnic scientists together with foreign colleagues were able to impart new properties to a promising semiconductor material. According to them, the new technology will allow chemical reactions to be carried out under the influence of light to produce energy, water purification and other tasks, and will also increase the sensitivity of photocells. The results were published in Communications Chemistry.
Photocatalysis, that is, the acceleration of chemical reactions using light energy, is an important element of alternative energy technologies and a number of other areas, scientists reported. Through photocatalysis, it is possible not only to generate energy, but also, for example, to obtain valuable chemicals or purify water.
The key material used for this is semiconductors: they absorb light and convert it into high-energy electrons. According to experts, semiconductors made in the form of nanoribbons are very interesting.
As the researchers explained, one of the most unusual and interesting substances for creating such nanoribbons is tungsten diselenide. This compound has useful electronic and optical properties, but it is very difficult to obtain nanoribbons from it.
A team of researchers from Tomsk Polytechnic University, together with colleagues from Austria, proposed a new technology for producing high-quality nanoribbons from tungsten diselenide, and also developed a method for improving their optoelectronic properties using silver nanoparticles.
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“We changed the properties of tungsten diselenide nanoribbons by attaching tiny silver particles to their edges using laser light. These nanoparticles make it possible to accelerate the photocatalytic process and enhance the photoresponse of nanoribbons,” said Raul Rodriguez, professor at the research school of chemical and biomedical technologies at Tomsk Polytechnic University.
The new method for producing nanoribbons is simple to implement, the authors emphasized. The resulting material is of very high quality, and the nanoparticles are located strictly at its edges, which ensures an increase in characteristics.
As the scientists emphasized, on the new material, the model photocatalysis reaction occurs with an efficiency close to 100%, which is unattainable when using tungsten diselenide or silver nanoparticles separately.
«We use laser radiation as a tool for the formation of pure silver nanoparticles from a nitrate solution silver, and to preserve the integrity of tungsten selenide, we cover future nanoribbons with an organic matrix. As far as we know, there are no analogues to this method,» noted Professor Rodriguez.
In the future, as scientists reported, it will be possible to produce nanoribbons modified with silver not only with using laser radiation, but also with the help of other energy sources, including sunlight.
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Specialists from the Mining University Leoben (Austria), the Austrian Academy of Sciences took part in the work and the National Institute of Materials Sciences of Japan. Tomsk Polytechnic University is a participant in the state support program for universities of the Russian Federation «Priority-2030».