Boosting photoelectrochemical water splitting performance of Ta3N5 nanorod array photoanodes by forming a dual co-catalyst shell
Abstract
Concerning both the activity and stability of the promising solar-driven Ta3N5-based photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting, the strategy for simultaneously promoting charge separation, enhancing catalytic activity and also improving the resistance to self-oxidation is highly desirable and actively pursued. In this study, a novel dual co-catalyst shell consisting of a continuous CoPi layer at the bottom and many non-continuous Co(OH)2 islands at the top of the CoPi layer is designed to meet the strict requirements for efficient Ta3N5 photoanodes. As a result of the synergistic effects of such a shell in collectively addressing the concerns, the constructed photoanode of CoPi/Co(OH)2-Ta3N5 nanorod arrays show the remarkably enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting performance compared with the photoanodes with single co-catalyst. The results demonstrated in this study are expected to shed some light on constructing efficient photoelectrodes of the light absorbers that have wide absorption range but low resistance to self-oxidation.
Citation
Chen , R , Zhen , C , Yang , Y , Sun , X , Irvine , J T S , Wang , L , Liu , G & Cheng , H-M 2019 , ' Boosting photoelectrochemical water splitting performance of Ta 3 N 5 nanorod array photoanodes by forming a dual co-catalyst shell ' , Nano Energy , vol. 59 , pp. 683-688 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.03.009
Publication
Nano Energy
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2211-2855Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.03.009
Description
The authors thank National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51825204, 51572266, 21633009, 51629201), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences CAS (QYZDB-SSW-JSC039) for the financial support. G. L. is grateful for the award of the Newton Advanced Fellowship.Collections
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