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Metformin‐Templated Nanoporous ZnO and Covalent Organic Framework Heterojunction Photoanode for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation
Author(s) -
Chatterjee Sauvik,
Bhanja Piyali,
Ghosh Dibyendu,
Kumar Praveen,
Kanti Das Sabuj,
Dalapati Sasanka,
Bhaumik Asim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.202002136
Subject(s) - photocurrent , materials science , wurtzite crystal structure , water splitting , nanoporous , nanorod , heterojunction , chemical engineering , band gap , charge carrier , photoelectrochemistry , nanocomposite , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , photocatalysis , zinc , chemistry , catalysis , electrochemistry , electrode , organic chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Photoelectrochemical water‐splitting offers unique opportunity in the utilization of abundant solar light energy and water resources to produce hydrogen (renewable energy) and oxygen (clean environment) in the presence of a semiconductor photoanode. Zinc oxide (ZnO), a wide bandgap semiconductor is found to crystallize predominantly in the hexagonal wurtzite phase. Herein, we first report a new crystalline triclinic phase of ZnO by using N‐rich antidiabetic drug metformin as a template via hydrothermal synthesis with self‐assembled nanorod‐like particle morphology. We have fabricated a heterojunction nanocomposite charge carrier photoanode by coupling this porous ZnO with a covalent organic framework, which displayed highly enhanced photocurrent density of 0.62 mA/cm 2 at 0.2 V vs. RHE in photoelectrochemical water oxidation and excellent photon‐to‐current conversion efficiency at near‐neutral pH vis‐à‐vis bulk ZnO. This enhancement of the photocurrent for the porous ZnO/COF nanocomposite material over the corresponding bulk ZnO could be attributed to the visible light energy absorption by COF and subsequent efficient charge‐carrier mobility via porous ZnO surface.