Constructing n-ZnO@Au heterogeneous nanorod arrays on p-Si substrate as efficient photocathode for water splitting.
Developing ingenious heterostructure photoelectrodes in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells to both harvest more solar photons and steer desired charge separation flow is a prerequisite challenge for PEC water splitting. Herein a hierarchical p-Si/n-ZnO@Au heterostructure was constructed via large-area growth of one-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs) on p-Si substrate followed by decorating with Au nanoparticles (NPs), which exhibited remarkably improved photocathode activity for PEC water splitting relative to the bare Si and Si/ZnO NRAs photocathodes. In addition to structural superiorities of 1D NRAs, a series of dynamic contributions from complementary band-gap structure, p-n heterojunctions and Au plasmon towards photon harvesting and charge separation were demonstrated to ensure a well-steered collection of photoelectrons at the exposed ZnO nanorods and Au NPs, enabling substantially improved photocathode performance.
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, People's Republic of China.
Zhijia
Z
Bao
Xiaoyong
X
Xu
Gang
G
Zhou
Jingguo
J
Hu