(Invited) Following Energy Transduction from Light Absorption to Product Formation in Photoelectrocatalysis

The ability to track how energy is transduced and transported in its various forms is critical to achieve a full understanding of key factors to optimize photoelectrocatalysis. Toward this end, we employ various forms of in situ optical scattering and reflectance microscopy that reveal the spatiotemporal evolution of both photogenerated charge carriers in semiconductor photoelectrodes on ultrafast time scales and electrochemical products as they diffuse from an electrode with sub-mM sensitivity and sub-ms time resolution. Thermal transport can also be resolved to clarify dissipation and thermal management. I will show structure-transport relationships in candidate photoelectrode transition metal oxides and show how a related approach also enables investigation of solution phase reaction products and their transport, even as a function of electrode irregularities.