Open AccessTio2/Co3O4 Composite as Photoanode of Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting
Author(s) -
Dian Anggraini,
Pratiwi Kusuma Wardani,
Mutia Agustina,
Amir Awaluddin,
Khuzaimah Arifin
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1351/1/012032
Subject(s) - water splitting , band gap , materials science , crystallinity , titanium dioxide , hydrothermal circulation , thin film , annealing (glass) , composite number , semiconductor , analytical chemistry (journal) , photocatalysis , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , composite material , chemistry , catalysis , biochemistry , chromatography , engineering
Titanium dioxide is one of the most investigated materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. However, TiO 2 has a wide band gap of approximately 3.2 eV, which limits its absorption energy to UV only, and the photoexcitation products (i.e., electron and hole) easily recombine. Developing a composite with other semiconductor materials is one of the efforts for improving the performance of TiO 2 photoelectrode. In this study, a composite of TiO 2 /Co 3 O 4 thin films was developed, and its performance in PEC water splitting was investigated. Co 3 O 4 was synthesized using a hydrothermal method, and TiO 2 P25 was used. TiO 2 and Co 3 O 4 were mixed by ball milling before coating on a clean FTO and annealing at 550 °C. Two weight variations of TiO 2 :Co 3 O 4 were used (95:5 and 90%:10%). XRD and FESEM analysis were used to investigate crystallinity phase and surface morphology. The optical band gap of the thin films was determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy, where the film with 90:10 weight ratio of TiO 2 :Co 3 O 4 obtained the smallest band gap of 2.9 eV. Co 3 O 4 improved the current density and TiO 2 performance by approximately three times.