  Self-doping can not only suppress the photogenerated charge recombination of
semiconducting quantum dots by self-introducing trapping states within the
bandgap, but also provide high-density catalytic active sites as the
consequence of abundant non-saturated bonds associated with the defects. Here,
we successfully prepared semiconducting copper selenide (CuSe) confined quantum
dots with abundant vacancies and systematically investigated their
photoelectrochemical characteristics. Photoluminescence characterizations
reveal that the presence of vacancies reduces the emission intensity
dramatically, indicating a low recombination rate of photogenerated charge
carriers due to the self-introduced trapping states within the bandgap. In
addition, the ultra-low charge transfer resistance measured by electrochemical
impedance spectroscopy implies the efficient charge transfer of CuSe
semiconducting quantum dots-based photoelectrocatalysts, which is guaranteed by
the high conductivity of their confined structure as revealed by
room-temperature electrical transport measurements. Such high conductivity and
low photogenerated charge carriers recombination rate, combined with
high-density active sites and confined structure, guaranteeing the remarkable
photoelectrocatalytic performance and stability as manifested by
photoelectrocatalysis characterizations. This work promotes the development of
semiconducting quantum dots-based photoelectrocatalysis and demonstrates CuSe
semiconducting quantum confined catalysts as an advanced photoelectrocatalysts
for oxygen evolution reaction.
