화학공학소재연구정보센터
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol.43, No.33, 15907-15917, 2018
Chemical bath deposition synthesis of TiO2/Cu2O core/shell nanowire arrays with enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting for H-2 evolution and photostability
In this study, we have developed a facile chemical bath deposition (CBD) method to grow ptype Cu2O nanoparticles on n-type TiO2 nanowire arrays (TiO2 NWAs) to fabricate TiO2/Cu2O core/shell heterojunction nanowire arrays (TiO2/Cu2O core/shell NWAs). When used as photoelectrode, the fabricated TiO2/Cu2O core/shell NWAs show improved photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting activity to pure TiO2 NWAs. The effects of the CBD cycle times on the PEC activities have been studied. The TiO2/Cu2O core/shell heterojunction nanowire array photoelectrode prepared by cycling 5 times in the CBD process achieves the highest photocurrent of 2.5 mA cm(-2), which is 2.5 times higher than that of pure TiO2 NWAs. In addition, the H-2 generation rate of this photoelectrode reaches to 32 mu mol h(-1) cm(-2), 1.7 times higher than that of pure TiO2 NWAs. Furthermore, the TiO2/Cu2O core/shell heterojunction nanowire array photoelectrode shows excellent photostability and achieves a stable photocurrent of over 2.3 mA cm(-2) during long light illumination time of 5 h. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of TiO2/Cu2O core/shell heterojunction nanowire array photoelectrode is attributed to the synergistic actions of TiO2 and Cu2O for improving visible light harvesting, and efficient transfer and separation of photogenerated electrons and holes. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.