Silicon nanowires@Co3O4 arrays film with Z-scheme band alignment for hydrogen evolution

Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen evolution provides an attractive strategy for clean, low-cost, and environment-friendly production of hydrogen from solar energy. Here, the film composite of Co3O4 nanoparticles decorated well-defined one-dimensional (1D) silicon nanowires arrays (SiNWs@Co3O4) are constructed by employing SiNWs arrays as a building block via a facile calcination approach. In comparison with bare SiNWs arrays, the resultant SiNWs@Co3O4 arrays composite exhibits distinctly enhanced photocatalytic performance for the evolution of hydrogen. The enhanced photoactivity is attributed to the formation of a direct Z-scheme band alignment in the SiNWs@Co3O4 film composite, which results in an improved spatial separation and migration of photoinduced electron-hole pairs as compared to bare SiNWs under light irradiation. Our work is anticipated to promote ongoing interest in the design of high-performance artificial 1D-based Z-scheme film photocatalysts with enhanced performance.