Work

Correlative Analysis of Individual Suspended Photocatalyst Particles Enabled by Optical Particle Trapping with Electrochemical Sensing

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: In particulate photocatalysis, typical experiments involve billions to trillions of particles that possess highly heterogeneous properties, making it difficult to uncover mechanisms and structure-property relationships at the single-particle level. Additionally, existing single-particle measurement techniques become limited by the need to anchor particles to substrates and lack the ability to control interparticle spacing and interactions. Herein, we describe a multi-modal technique called optical particle trapping with electrochemical sensing (OPTECS), whereby the distributions of product generation rates from fully wetted, individual photocatalyst particles are measured using microelectrode sensors while simultaneously recording their luminescent characteristics. Using doped bismuth vanadate and strontium titanate as model particulate photocatalysts towards overall water splitting, OPTECS is used to reveal (i) hidden correlations between single particle luminescence intensity and photoactivity, and (ii) the presence of optically stimulated electrochemiluminescence (OSECL), which is leveraged to quantify rates of undesired back reactions, a key loss mechanism in particulate photocatalysis.

Source: ChemRxiv

DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv.15005523/v2

Authors: Kevin Dunn, Zhaokai Lin, Madeleine Saint James, Avishek Banik, Alison Regina, Francis Alcorn, Bradley Layne, Mahdi Hesari, Yuichi Yamaguchi, Akihiko Kudo, Shane Ardo, Alec Talin, Justin Sambur, Rohini Bala Chandran, Daniel Esposito

Institutions: Columbia University, University of Michigan, Colorado State University, Sandia National Laboratories California, Sandia National Laboratories, University of California, Irvine, State University of New York at Oswego, Tokyo University of Science

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques

Subfield: Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Field: Energy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, Office of Science, National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia National Laboratories

Awards: G11630931, G2214935549, G280414146, G413247060, G4771968897, G4903105778, G5339743583, G6338696783, G855168022, G8922552302

OpenAlex ID: W7222409750

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