Abstract
For photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production, low charge transport efficiency of a photoelectrode is one of the key factors that largely limit PEC performance enhancement. Here, we report a tin-doped indium oxide (In2O3:Sn, ITO) nanowire array (NWs) based CdSe/CdS/TiO2 multishelled heterojunction photoelectrode. This multishelled one-dimensional (1D) heterojunction photoelectrode shows superior charge transport efficiency due to the negligible carrier recombination in ITO NWs, leading to a greatly improved photocurrent density (∼16.2 mA/cm2 at 1.0 V vs RHE). The ITO NWs with an average thickness of ∼12 μm are first grown on commercial ITO/glass substrate by a vapor-liquid-solid method. Subsequently, the TiO2 and CdSe/CdS shell layers are deposited by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) and a chemical bath deposition method, respectively. The resultant CdSe/CdS/TiO2/ITO NWs photoelectrode, compared to a planar structure with the same configuration, shows improved light absorption and much faster charge transport properties. More importantly, even though the CdSe/CdS/TiO2/ITO NWs photoelectrode has lower CdSe/CdS loading (i.e., due to its lower surface area) than the mesoporous TiO2 nanoparticle based photoelectrode, it shows 2.4 times higher saturation photocurrent density, which is attributed to the superior charge transport and better light absorption by the 1D ITO NWs.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1161-1168 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 Mar 7 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:J.-K.L. acknowledges the support from National Science Foundation (Grant No. CMMI-1333182, EPMD-1408025) and the Global Frontier R&D Program on Center for Multiscale Energy System, Korea (2012M3A6A7054855). I.S.C. also acknowledges the support from Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2015R1C1A1A01053785).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.
Keywords
- 1D transparent conducting oxides
- CdSe/CdS/TiO heterojunction
- Charge transport
- InO:Sn nanowire array
- Photoelectrochemical hydrogen production
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Chemistry(all)
- Environmental Chemistry
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment