Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 9, Issue 7, Pages 6123-6129Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b15854
Keywords
photocathode; silicon; MoS2 catalyst; photoelectrochemical properties; Al2O3 layer
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51672183, 11474215]
- Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education [20133201110003]
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Education committee of China [15KJA140003]
- Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Water splitting in a photoelectrochemical cell, which converts sunlight into hydrogen energy, has recently received intense research. Silicon is suitable as a viable light-harvesting material for constructing such cell; however, there is a need to improve its stability and explore a cheap and efficient cocatalyst. Here we fabricate highly efficient and stable photocathodes by integrating crystalline MoS2 catalyst with similar to 2 nm Al2O3 protected n(+)p-Si. Al2O3 acts as a protective and passivative layer of the Si surface, while the sputtering method using a MoS2 target along with a postannealing leads to a vertically standing, conformal, and crystalline nano-MoS2 layer on Al2O3/n(+) p-Si photocathode. Efficient (0.4 V vs RHE onset potential and 35.6 mA/cm(2) saturated photocurrent measured under 100 mA/cm(2) Xe lamp illumination) and stable (above 120 h continuous water splitting) photocathode was obtained, which opens the door for the MoS2 catalyst to be applied in photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution in a facile and scalable way.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available