Abstract
Highly efficient hole transfer from photoanodes to oxygen evolution catalysts is crucial for solar photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Herein, we demonstrated the coupling of the NiCo catalyst with carbon quantum dots (CDs) on the surfaces of alpha-Fe2O3 photoanodes, resulting in one of the highest currently known PEC activities of 4.26 mA cm(-2) (1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, AM 1.5G). Furthermore, the H-2 generation rate from PEC water splitting could reach up to 74.9 mu mol cm(-2) h(-1) with a faradaic efficiency of nearly 99%. The detailed experimental results clearly reveal that these CDs acted as an efficient medium for remarkably promoting hole transport from anodes to catalysts and selectively tailoring the electronic structure of surface-active sites, which significantly promoted the surface charge separation and oxygen evolution process. This work offers unique insights into the design and construction of highly efficient photoanodes for PEC water splitting applications.
Highly efficient hole transfer from photoanodes to oxygen evolution catalysts is crucial for solar photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Herein, we demonstrated the coupling of the NiCo catalyst with carbon quantum dots (CDs) on the surfaces of alpha-Fe2O3 photoanodes, resulting in one of the highest currently known PEC activities of 4.26 mA cm(-2) (1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, AM 1.5G). Furthermore, the H-2 generation rate from PEC water splitting could reach up to 74.9 mu mol cm(-2) h(-1) with a faradaic efficiency of nearly 99%. The detailed experimental results clearly reveal that these CDs acted as an efficient medium for remarkably promoting hole transport from anodes to catalysts and selectively tailoring the electronic structure of surface-active sites, which significantly promoted the surface charge separation and oxygen evolution process. This work offers unique insights into the design and construction of highly efficient photoanodes for PEC water splitting applications.
Keywords Plus：WATER OXIDATION PERFORMANCECHARGE-TRANSPORTNANOSTRUCTURESALPHA-FE2O3NANOSHEETSTIO2
Published in JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A，Volume 10；10.1039/d1ta10039d，FEB 8 2022