Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting of Black Silicon Photoanode with pH-Dependent Copper-Bipyridine Catalysts

Since the water oxidation half-reaction requires the transfer of multi-electrons and the formation of O-O bond, it's crucial to investigate the catalytic behaviours of semiconductor photoanodes. In this work, a bio-inspired copper-bipyridine catalyst of Cu(dcbpy) is decorated on the nanoporous Si photoanode (black Si, b-Si). Under AM1.5G illumination, the b-Si/Cu(dcbpy) photoanode exhibits a high photocurrent density of 6.31 mA cm(-2) at 1.5 V-RHE at pH 11.0, which is dramatically improved from the b-Si photoanode (1.03 mA cm(-2)) and f-Si photoanode (0.0087 mA cm(-2)). Mechanism studies demonstrate that b-Si/Cu(dcbpy) has improved light-harvesting, interfacial charge-transfer, and surface area for water splitting. More interestingly, b-Si/Cu(dcbpy) exhibits a pH-dependent water oxidation behaviour with a minimum Tafel slope of 241 mV/dec and the lowest overpotential of 0.19 V at pH 11.0, which is due to the monomer/dimer equilibrium of copper catalyst. At pH similar to 11, the formation of dimeric hydroxyl-complex could form O-O bond through a redox isomerization (RI) mechanism, which decreases the required potential for water oxidation. This in-depth understanding of pH-dependent water oxidation catalyst brings insights into the design of dimer water oxidation catalysts and efficient photoanodes for solar energy conversion.

Automated summary

In this study, a bio-inspired copper-bipyridine catalyst was decorated on a nanoporous Si photoanode, resulting in high photocurrent density and pH-dependent water oxidation behavior.