Hydrogen Evolution at Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticle Electrodes

Organic polymer nanoparticles have been gaining attention in photovoltaics as a means to control the morphology of polymer composite films for the purpose of studying bulk heterojunction, photoactive layers. This work investigates the preparation of nanostructured organic thin films from P3HT:PC61BM nanoparticles and their characterization as photoelectrodes for the photoelectrochemical reduction of hydrogen in acidic solutions. The morphology and optoelectronic properties of the nanostructured photocathodes are compared to conventional, solution-cast thin films of P3HT:PC61BM. The nanostructured photoelectrodes provide increased surface area compared to solution-cast films through control of the nanoscale morphology within each nanoparticle, leading to enhanced P3HT:PC61BM phase segregation. The photo-assisted deposition of platinum nanoparticles as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts onto the nanostructured P3HT:PC61BM photocathodes facilitates the photoreduction of protons to H2.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author