A two-step approach towards solar-driven water splitting

The search for an energy efficient means of utilizing sunlight to carry out solar-driven water splitting continues to be a subject of intense investigation. In a recent publication (Z. G. Yi et al., Nature Mater. 9(2010), 559-564), a simple Ag(3)PO(4) semiconductor material was shown to possess strong photo-oxidative properties under visible-light irradiation. Here we report a novel two-step approach that enables energy-efficient, solar-driven water splitting at room temperature in the presence of powdered silver orthophosphate. The approach proposed avoids the use of a low-efficiency, thin-film photo-electrode and turns the instability of the silver orthophosphate semiconductor material into an advantage. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.