Ta3N5-Nanorods enabling highly efficient water oxidation via advantageous light harvesting and charge collection
- 1 May 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Energy & Environmental Science
- Vol. 13 (5), 1519-1530
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ee00220h
Abstract
Efficient conversion of solar energy to hydrogen through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a strategic and promising goal towards clean, green and sustainable fuel production. The most important task in PEC water splitting is the development of an efficient and stable photoanode with effective solar light absorption, generation and separation of free charge carriers, and charge carrier transport to the surface for the oxygen evolution reaction; however, such requirements are challenging to achieve simultaneously. Here we show that this problem can be solved in polycrystalline Ta3N5-nanorods (Ta3N5-NRs) that consist of aggregated single crystalline domains. The fabricated highly-conductive photoanode with large grain domains provides enhanced light harvesting because of the efficient generation and extraction of charge carriers, which leads to a completely saturated photocurrent of 9.95 mA cm(-2) at 1.05 V (versus RHE) and delivers a solar energy conversion efficiency of 2.72% for single-photon photoanodes.Funding Information
- New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (17H01216)
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
This publication has 50 references indexed in Scilit:
- Stable Hydrogen Evolution from CdS-Modified CuGaSe2 Photoelectrode under Visible-Light IrradiationJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2013
- Highly active oxide photocathode for photoelectrochemical water reductionNature Materials, 2011
- Bioinspired molecular co-catalysts bonded to a silicon photocathode for solar hydrogen evolutionNature Materials, 2011
- Effect of a Cobalt-Based Oxygen Evolution Catalyst on the Stability and the Selectivity of Photo-Oxidation Reactions of a WO3 PhotoanodeChemistry of Materials, 2011
- Probing the photoelectrochemical properties of hematite (α-Fe2O3) electrodes using hydrogen peroxide as a hole scavengerEnergy & Environmental Science, 2010
- Solar Water Splitting CellsChemical Reviews, 2010
- Accelerating materials development for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production: Standards for methods, definitions, and reporting protocolsJournal of Materials Research, 2010
- Ta3N5 and TaON Thin Films on Ta Foil: Surface Composition and StabilityThe Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2003
- The theory of electrode matching in photoelectrochemical cells for the production of hydrogenInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 1987
- Efficiency of Splitting Water with Semiconducting PhotoelectrodesJournal of the Electrochemical Society, 1984