Open AccessElectrodeposited WO3/Au Photoanodes for Photoelectrochemical Reactions
Author(s) -
Lorna Jeffery Minggu,
Nurul Akmal Jaafar,
Kim Hang Ng,
Khuzaimah Arifin,
Rozan Mohamad Yunus
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
sains malaysiana
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.251
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 2735-0118
pISSN - 0126-6039
DOI - 10.17576/jsm-2020-4912-32
Subject(s) - tungsten trioxide , photocurrent , tin oxide , formic acid , materials science , chemical engineering , substrate (aquarium) , oxide , photoelectrochemistry , band gap , photoelectrochemical cell , inorganic chemistry , tungsten , electrochemistry , chemistry , electrode , optoelectronics , metallurgy , organic chemistry , electrolyte , oceanography , engineering , geology
This work aims to study the effect of gold (Au) loading on the photoelectrochemical behavior of tungsten trioxide (WO3) photoelectrodes. The WO3 film has been fabricated via electrodeposition method with constant potential on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate. The Au nanoparticle loading on WO3 films surface was also prepared by constant potential electrodeposition. Due to the small amount of Au loading, the band gap values of the plasmonized WO3 remained around 2.6 eV. However, during the photoelectrochemical analysis, the photoactivity of the plasmonized WO3 photoelectrodes improved >100% with a minimal amount of Au loading compared to the pristine WO3. The photocurrent generation was further enhanced with the presence of organic donors (methanol and formic acid). The photocurrent achieved 3.74 mA/cm2 when 1.0 M of formic acid was added. Plausible charge transfer mechanism was suggested.