title: Silicon/hematite core/shell nanowire array decorated with gold nanoparticles for unbiased solar water oxidation.
abstract: We report the facile fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) silicon/hematite core/shell nanowire arrays decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and their potential application for sunlight-driven solar water splitting. The hematite and AuNPs respectively play crucial catalytic and plasmonic photosensitization roles, while silicon absorbs visible light and generates high photocurrent. Under simulated solar light illumination, solar water splitting with remarkable efficiency is achieved with no external bias applied. Such a nanocomposite photoanode design offers great promise for unassisted sunlight-driven water oxidation, and further stability and efficiency improvements to the device will lead to exciting prospects for practical solar water splitting and artificial photosynthesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University , Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kui-Qing
authors.initials: KQ
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Fu-Qiang
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiang-Min
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Shuit-Tong
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Lee