Modified Nanopillar Arrays for Highly Stable and Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Lanyan Huang; Qingguo Meng; Chaoqun Shang; Mingliang Jin; Lingling Shui; Yongguang Zhang; Zhang Zhang; Zhihong Chen; Mingzhe Yuan; Xin Wang; Krzysztof Kempa; Guofu Zhou

doi:10.1002/gch2.201800027

Modified Nanopillar Arrays for Highly Stable and Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Glob Chall. 2018 Nov 19;3(3):1800027. doi: 10.1002/gch2.201800027. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Authors

Lanyan Huang¹, Qingguo Meng², Chaoqun Shang¹, Mingliang Jin^{1

3}, Lingling Shui¹, Yongguang Zhang³, Zhang Zhang^{1

3}, Zhihong Chen^{2

3}, Mingzhe Yuan², Xin Wang^{1

3}, Krzysztof Kempa⁴, Guofu Zhou^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology & Institute of Electronic Paper Displays South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics South China Normal University Guangdong China.
² Shenyang Institute of Automation, Guangzhou Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Guangdong China.
³ International Academy of Optoelectronics at Zhaoqing South China Normal University Guangdong China.
⁴ Department of Physics Boston College Chestnut Hill MA 02467 USA.

Abstract

Atomically modified graphitic carbon nitride quantum dots (QDs), characterized by strongly increased reactivity and stability, are developed. These are deposited on arrays of TiO₂ nanopillars used as a photoanode for the photoelectrochemical water splitting. This photoanode shows excellent stability, with 111 h of continuous work without any performance loss, which outperforms the best-reported results by a factor of 10. Remarkably, our photoanode produces hydrogen even at zero bias. The excellent performance is attributed to the enhancement of photoabsorption, as well as to the promotion of charge separation between TiO₂ nanopillars and the QDs.

Keywords: TiO2 nanopillars; graphitic carbon nitride; hydrogen evolution; photoelectrochemistry; quantum dots.