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Fast and Simple Construction of Efficient Solar‐Water‐Splitting Electrodes with Micrometer‐Sized Light‐Absorbing Precursor Particles
Author(s) -
Feng Jianyong,
Zhao Xin,
Ma Su Su Khine,
Wang Danping,
Chen Zhong,
Huang Yizhong
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
advanced materials technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.184
H-Index - 42
ISSN - 2365-709X
DOI - 10.1002/admt.201600119
Subject(s) - photocurrent , materials science , fabrication , micrometer , water splitting , electrode , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , semiconductor , crystallinity , optics , composite material , photocatalysis , catalysis , medicine , biochemistry , chemistry , alternative medicine , physics , pathology
Micrometer‐sized light‐absorbing semiconductor particles (usually prepared by high temperature synthetic techniques) hold the desirable merits of high crystallinity, low concentrations of bulk defects, and a decreased grain boundary density to reduce bulk recombination of photocarriers. However, solar‐water‐splitting electrodes assembled using them as precursors always produce very low photocurrents. This could be due to the lack of an effective fabrication and/or modification protocol applicable to assemble these micrometer‐sized semiconductor particles into suitable electrode configurations. A fast and simple fabrication scheme of drop‐casting followed by the necking treatment is developed to enable the micrometer‐sized precursor particles derived photoelectrodes to deliver appreciable photocurrent densities (>1 mA cm −2 ). By applying this fabrication scheme, photoelectrodes of solid‐state reaction derived Mo doped BiVO 4 (≈4 μm, modified with oxygen evolution catalysts) and commercial WO 3 (size ranging from 100 nm to >10 μm) have yielded photocurrent densities higher than 1 mA cm −2 , while the photoelectrode composed of commercial CdSe (≈10 μm) is able to produce a photocurrent density higher than 5 mA cm −2 (in a Na 2 S aqueous solution). This strategy provides a new possible way, in addition to the predominant route of nanostructuring, to construct efficient solar‐water‐splitting electrodes.