Investigation of Regeneration Kinetics of a Carbon-Dot-Sensitized Metal Oxide Semiconductor with Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

Carbon dots (CDs) have been widely studied as sensitizers for metal oxide semiconductor electrodes. CDs/TiO2 photoanodes were fabricated, and the regeneration kinetics of CDs were examined by scanning electrochemical microscopy in feedback mode. Regeneration rate constants of the CDs were obtained by using different concentrations of redox mediators and light intensities. Testing the regeneration rate of CDs within a single sensitized electrode provides some new insight into the analysis of the performance of CD-sensitized metal oxide semiconductor electrodes.