Photoelectrochemical oxidation of thiols was enhanced with a threshold potential of −0.35 V vs. Ag/AgCl by the use of a ZnPc/PCBM:P3HT/ZnO electode, which was prepared by removing the PEDOT:PSS/Au electrode of an inverted OPV device and coating it with ZnPc. A co-photocatalysis property of ZnPc was observed in the photoelectrochemistry and scanning Kelvin probe microscopy.

Generally, p–n junction-based solar energy conversion has the disadvantage of a loss in potential gain in comparison with the photon energy. In this study, we found a more positive potential for a lateral domain interface of p–n junction than for a conventional p–n junction. A terrace bilayer (TB) p–n junction of phthalocyanine (H₂Pc) and 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic-bis-benzimidazole (PTCBI) was studied using scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM), and its electronic properties were analyzed using the contact potential difference (V_CPD) data. The analysis of V_CPD in the single layer region and the bilayer region (BLR) indicated a vacuum level shift through the electron transfer from PTCBI into indium tin oxide (ITO), from H₂Pc into ITO and from H₂Pc into PTCBI. Furthermore, the comparison of these V_CPD data indicated a micrometer-localized positive potential in the boundary region (BDR) of the terrace bilayer structure of p-type on n-type. The gain difference of the V_CPD reached +0.1 V in comparison with the BLR. The phenomena can be explained as a lateral dipole at the p–n junction. Similar phenomena were observed in TB-H₂Pc/C₆₀/ITO and TB-H₂Pc/PTCBI/Au. The gain was extracted as oxidation power in photoelectrochemistry; i.e., at −0.2 V vs. Ag/AgCl a greater anodic current was observed for a patterned terrace bilayer electrode. Additionally, as a photocatalyst film (i.e., a H₂Pc (dot)/PTCBI/PTFE membrane filter), the p–n dot terrace structure showed a higher quantum efficiency (5.1%) than that of the bilayer (3.2%) for the decomposition of acetic acid. The present design and method were utilized to obtain an efficient photocatalyst, especially through the mitigation of potential loss from the photon energy to redox powers without changing the molecular component.

Rhenium disulfide (ReS₂) is a 2-dimensional transitional metal dichalcogenides that exhibits unique properties such as a direct band gap irrespective of thickness, weak interlayer coupling, and exceptional anisotropic properties, making it a promising material for optoelectronics applications. In this work, we synthesized ReS₂ nanoflakes on SiO₂/Si substrates using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The effects of Re precursor-substrate distance (d) and growth temperature on flakes morphology were systematically investigated. Field-effect scanning electron microscopy images revealed that shorter Re precursor-substrate distance (d= 8 cm) favored the formation of high density and vertical flakes due to the high concentration of Re vapor. However, samples grown with the largest separation distance (d = 11 cm) and higher substrate temperature (850 °C) demonstrated a low density of planar flakes. Raman spectroscopy measurements showed the E _g, A _g, and C _p vibrational modes which belong to ReS₂. The full-width-at-half-maximum of the E _g mode at 212 cm⁻¹ is 6.7 cm⁻¹, comparable to the mechanically exfoliated ReS₂ reference. The thicknesses of the flakes range from bilayer to multilayer and the measured band gap energy is ∼1.57 eV. The XPS data verified that the atomic ratio between Re and S is 1.9, which confirms the stoichiometry of the ReS₂ flakes. Finally, the TEM images and diffraction pattern confirmed that the ReS₂ flake is a single-crystal with distorted 1 T-phase. This work emphasizes the influence of CVD parameters on the morphology of ReS₂ flakes, which is vital for developing high performance ReS₂ based optoelectronics devices.

The spin coating process became the most widely used technique in the fabrication industry for thin film coating on a substrate by centrifugal force. Unfortunat