Faradaic efficiency of O-2 evolution on metal nanoparticle sensitized hematite photoanodes
Journal article, 2014

Functionalization of transition metal oxides using metallic nanoparticles is an interesting route towards efficient photoelectrochemical hydrogen production via water splitting. Although an enhanced photocurrent in photoanodes upon functionalization with metallic nanostructures has been observed in several studies, to the best of our knowledge no measurements of the Faradaic efficiency (FE) of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) have been reported for such systems. This work characterizes the FE on a model system consisting of ultra-thin films of hematite (Fe2O3) sensitized with Ti/Au nanodisks. Compared to bare hematite references, sensitized samples showed significantly enhanced photocurrents as well as O-2 evolution. Experimental evidence suggests that the observed enhancement was not due to photocatalytic activity of the nanodisks. The FE has been determined to be 100%, within the experimental errors, for both sensitized and reference samples. Also, this work demonstrates that the sensitized samples were stable for at least 16 hours photocurrent testing. The concepts shown in this work are generally applicable to any situation in which a semiconductor has its water splitting performance enhanced by metallic nanostructures.

WATER OXIDATION

SOLAR

CATALYST

ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION

SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRODES

PHOTOELECTRODES

IRON-OXIDE

HYDROGEN-PRODUCTION

FILMS

ABSORPTION

Author

Beniamino Iandolo

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Chemical Physics

Björn Wickman

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Chemical Physics

B. Seger

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

I. Chorkendorff

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Igor Zoric

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Chemical Physics

Anders Hellman

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Chemical Physics

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

1463-9076 (ISSN) 1463-9084 (eISSN)

Vol. 16 3 1271-1275

Areas of Advance

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Transport

Energy

Materials Science

Subject Categories

Physical Sciences

Chemical Sciences

Infrastructure

Nanofabrication Laboratory

DOI

10.1039/c3cp54288b

More information

Latest update

2/28/2018