4.8 Article

A three-dimensional hexagonal fluorine-doped tin oxide nanocone array: a superior light harvesting electrode for high performance photoelectrochemical water splitting

Journal

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Volume 7, Issue 11, Pages 3651-3658

Publisher

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c4ee01581a

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Funding

  1. HK-RGC General Research Funds (GRF) [HKUST 605710, HKUST 606511, HKUST 623112, HKUST 612113]
  2. National Science Foundation for Post-doctoral Scientists of China [2014M550314]

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Photonic nanostructures hold great promise in promoting light harvesting. Here we report the first design and construction of a three-dimensional (3D) hexagonal nanocone array of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) on glass as an excellent electrode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The PEC current density with suitably deposited Ti-doped hematite at 1.23 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) was increased by 86% to 2.24 +/- 0.02 mA cm(-2) compared to that with the planar counterpart, mainly ascribable to the special light harvesting effect and the electrode surface area provided by 3D FTO. Upon the embedment of a gold layer to concentrate the incident light onto the hematite layer and the deposition of the Co-Pi catalyst with a modified procedure, the photocurrent experienced a large cathodic shift of onset potential by 360 mV and soared to a high value of 3.39 +/- 0.01 mA cm(-2) (at 1.23 V), yielding a power conversion efficiency of 0.70% at a potential as low as 0.88 V vs. RHE.

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