Journal
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
Volume 47, Issue 8, Pages 11379-11386Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.12.264
Keywords
BTO/Cu2O heterostructure; Photoelectrochemical water splitting activity; Light absorption ability; Transfer and separation of charges
Categories
Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFB0405400]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11074312, 61575225, 11474174, 11374377, 11404414]
- Undergraduate Research Training Program of Minzu University of China [URTP2019110016, BEIJ2019110004, URTP2020110105, URTP2020110044]
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By depositing Cu2O nanoparticles onto the surface of BaTiO3 using an electrochemical method, BTO/Cu2O heterostructure photoanodes were prepared. These photoanodes exhibited significantly improved photocurrent density compared to pure BTO photoanodes.
Here, we first use a facile electrochemical deposition method to load Cu2O nanoparticles onto the BaTiO3 (BTO) surface to prepare BTO/Cu2O heterostructure photoanodes. Compared to the pure BTO photoanode, all BTO/Cu2O heterostructure photoanodes show outstanding visible light harvesting ability and greatly improved photoelectrochemical water splitting performance. By optimizing the loading amount of Cu2O nanoparticles, the photocurrent density achieved by BTO/Cu2O-100 photoanode is 0.26 mA/cm(2) at 0 V versus Ag/AgCl, which is 2.6 times that of the bare BTO photoanode. In contrast with the photocurrent densities of the other reported BTO-based heterostructure photoanodes, the photocurrent density achieved by the present BTO/Cu2O-100 photoanode without bias voltage is much higher. Additionally, the maximum solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of the BTO/Cu2O-100 heterostructure photoanode is 0.11% at 0.72 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, approximately double that of BTO photoanode. The measurements of diffuse reflectance spectra, photoelectrochemical impedance and the room temperature photoluminescence spectra demonstrate that the improved photo-electrochemical performance contributes from the visible light absorption ability of Cu2O nanoparticles, efficient transport and separation of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, which are induced by the spontaneous polarization electric field of ferroelectric BTO, p-n junction and type-II band alignment of BTO/Cu2O heterostructure photoanode. A possible mechanism for the improved photoelectrochemical water splitting performance and charge transfer process is proposed.
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