Epitaxial Cubic Silicon Carbide Photocathodes for Visible-Light-Driven Water Splitting

Xiuxiu Han; Steffen Heuser; Xili Tong; Nianjun Yang; Xiang-Yun Guo; Xin Jiang

doi:10.1002/chem.201905218

Epitaxial Cubic Silicon Carbide Photocathodes for Visible-Light-Driven Water Splitting

Chemistry. 2020 Mar 18;26(16):3586-3590. doi: 10.1002/chem.201905218. Epub 2020 Mar 3.

Authors

Xiuxiu Han^{1

2

3}, Steffen Heuser³, Xili Tong¹, Nianjun Yang³, Xiang-Yun Guo^{1

2

4}, Xin Jiang³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan, 030001, P. R. China.
² Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
³ Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Siegen, Siegen, 57076, Germany.
⁴ School of Petrochemical Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, P. R. China.

Abstract

Cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) material feature a suitable bandgap and high resistance to photocorrosion. Thus, it has been emerged as a promising semiconductor for hydrogen evolution. Here, the relationship between the photoelectrochemical properties and the microstructures of different SiC materials is demonstrated. For visible-light-derived water splitting to hydrogen production, nanocrystalline, microcrystalline and epitaxial (001) 3C-SiC films are applied as the photocathodes. The epitaxial 3C-SiC film presents the highest photoelectrochemical activity for hydrogen evolution, because of its perfect (001) orientation, high phase purity, low resistance, and negative conduction band energy level. This finding offers a strategy to design SiC-based photocathodes with superior photoelectrochemical performances.

Keywords: hydrogen evolution reaction; photoelectrochemistry; silicon carbide; visible light; water splitting.

Abstract

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