Closed-loop Design of Heterostructures for Solar Energy Conversion

The development of efficient solar energy conversion is one of the 

grand challenges of our time. Water splitting, or the disproportionation 

of  H2O  into  energy-dense  fuels,  H2 and  O2,  is  undoubtedly  a 

promising  strategy.  We  have  used  a  closed-loop  materials  design 

process  to  develop  a  new  class  of  nanoscale  heterostructures 

comprising  MxV2O5  nanowires,  where  M  is  a  p-block  cation 

characterized  by  a  stereoactive  lone  pair  of  electrons  and  x  is  its 

stoichiometry,  interfaced  with  II−VI  semiconductor  quantum  dots 

(QDs). Our signature theoretical design and experimental realization 

of SnxV2O5 as a hole acceptor mitigates the longstanding problem of 

photocorrosion  of  quantum  dots  and  provides  a  powerful 

demonstration of using mid-gap states derived from lone-pairs of p-

block cations as acceptors of photogenerated holes.