Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 8, Issue 10, Pages 10403-10413Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nn503751s
Keywords
water splitting; quantum dots; semiconductor; photoelectrochemical cell
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Funding
- Nanyang Technological University
- Singapore-Berkeley Research Initiative for Sustainable Energy (SinBeRISE)
- Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan [NSC 102-2113-M-002-013-MY2]
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Sunlight is an ideal source of energy, and converting sunlight into chemical fuels, mimicking what nature does, has attracted significant attention in the past decade. In terms of solar energy conversion into chemical fuels, solar water splitting for hydrogen production is one of the most attractive renewable energy technologies, and this achievement would satisfy our increasing demand for carbon-neutral sustainable energy. Here, we report corrosion-resistant, nanocomposite photoelectrodes for spontaneous overall solar water splitting, consisting of a CdS quantum dot (QD) modified TiO2 photoanode and a CdSe QD modified NiO photocathode, where cadmium chalcogenide QDs are protected by a ZnS passivation layer and gas evolution cocatalysts. The optimized device exhibited a maximum efficiency of 0.17%, comparable to that of natural photosynthesis with excellent photostability under visible light illumination. Our device shows spontaneous overall water splitting in a nonsacrificial environment under visible light illumination ( gimel 400 nm) through mimicking nature's Z-scheme process. The results here also provide a conceptual layout to improve the efficiency of solar-to-fuel conversion, which is solely based on facile, scalable solution-phase techniques.
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