Engineered Solution–Liquid–Solid Growth of a “Treelike” 1D/1D TiO2 Nanotube-CdSe Nanowire Heterostructure: Photoelectrochemical Conversion of Broad Spectrum of Solar Energy

This work presents a hitherto unreported approach to assemble a 1D oxide-1D chalcogenide heterostructured photoactive film. As a representative system, bismuth (Bi) catalyzed 1D CdSe nanowires are directly grown on anodized 1D TiO2 nanotube (T_NT). A combination of the reductive successive-ionic-layer-adsorption-reaction (R-SILAR) and the solution–liquid–solid (S-L-S) approach is implemented to fabricate this heterostructured assembly, reported in this 1D/1D form for the first time. XRD, SEM, HRTEM, and elemental mapping are performed to systematically characterize the deposition of bismuth on T_NT and the growth of CdSe nanowires leading to the evolution of the 1D/1D heterostructure. The resulting “treelike” photoactive architecture demonstrates UV–visible light-driven electron–hole pair generation. The photoelectrochemical results highlight: (i) the formation of a stable n–n heterojunction between TiO2 nanotube and CdSe nanowire, (ii) an excellent correlation between the absorbance vis-à-vis light conversion efficiency (IPCE), and (iii) a photocurrent density of 3.84 mA/cm2. This proof-of-concept features the viability of the approach for designing such complex 1D/1D oxide–chalcogenide heterostructures that can be of interest to photovoltaics, photocatalysis, environmental remediation, and sensing.