title: Efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting with ultrathin films of hematite on three-dimensional nanophotonic structures.
abstract: Photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar water splitting represents a clean and sustainable approach for hydrogen (H2) production and substantial research are being performed to improve the conversion efficiency. Hematite (α-Fe2O3) is considered as a promising candidate for PEC water splitting due to its chemical stability, appropriate band structure, and abundance. However, PEC performance based on hematite is hindered by the short hole diffusion length that put a constraint on the active layer thickness and its light absorption capability. In this work, we have designed and fabricated novel PEC device structure with ultrathin hematite film deposited on three-dimensional nanophotonic structure. In this fashion, the nanophotonic structures can largely improve the light absorption in the ultrathin active materials. In addition, they also provide large surface area to accommodate the slow surface water oxidation process. As the result, high current density of 3.05 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V with respect to the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) has been achieved on such nanophotonic structure, which is about three times of that for a planar photoelectrode. More importantly, our systematic analysis with experiments and modeling revealed that the design of high performance PEC devices needs to consider not only total optical absorption, but also the absorption profile in the active material, in addition to electrode surface area and carrier collection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and ‡Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yongcai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Siu-Fung
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: Qianpeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Qingfeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Zhanhua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Kwong-Hoi
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Tsui
authors.forename: Yuegang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shihe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fan