title: Photo-catalyzed surface hydrolysis of iridium(iii) ions on semiconductors: a facile method for the preparation of semiconductor/IrOxcomposite photoanodes toward oxygen evolution reaction.
abstract: We previously reported that the hydrolysis of Ir3+in homogeneous solution could be triggered by irradiation with light whose energy was larger than a threshold value. In this work, we demonstrated that, by introducing Fe2O3particles into solution, the incident light energy-restriction for the photo-catalyzed hydrolysis could be broken and the hydrolysis occurred at the Fe2O3/solution interface. The photo-generated holes on the Fe2O3surface played a key role in oxidizing Ir(iii) to Ir(iv) species and triggered the deposition of IrOx. We showed that this photo-catalyzed surface hydrolysis is a universal phenomenon that takes place on the surface of many n-type semiconductors such as Fe2O3, TiO2, and Ag3PO4. As IrOxis an efficient catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction, surface hydrolysis is a general, facile and efficient strategy to prepare semiconductor/IrOxcomposites, which can be used as anodic materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China. pdiao@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qingyong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China. pdiao@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China. pdiao@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0513-2577
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China. pdiao@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tengyi
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3581-1842
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China. pdiao@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P. R. China. pdiao@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5077-1298
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Diao