Solar Water Oxidation by Multicomponent TaON Photoanodes Functionalized with Nickel Oxide

Satnam Singh Gujral; Alexandr N Simonov; Xi-Ya Fang; Masanobu Higashi; Ryu Abe; Leone Spiccia

doi:10.1002/cplu.201600242

Solar Water Oxidation by Multicomponent TaON Photoanodes Functionalized with Nickel Oxide

Chempluschem. 2016 Oct;81(10):1107-1115. doi: 10.1002/cplu.201600242.

Authors

Satnam Singh Gujral¹, Alexandr N Simonov¹, Xi-Ya Fang², Masanobu Higashi³, Ryu Abe³, Leone Spiccia¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia.
² Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia.
³ Department of Energy and Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 615-8510, Japan.

PMID: 31964081
DOI: 10.1002/cplu.201600242

Abstract

Efficient solar-powered water oxidation over the TaON-based anodes requires coupling this photoactive n-type semiconductor to an electrooxidation catalyst to improve the otherwise unsatisfactory activity and stability. Herein, we examine how functionalization with electrodeposited nickel oxide, NiO_x , affects the performance of screen-printed TaON photoanodes post-necked with titania (TiO₂ -TaON). The effects of the NiO_x photo-electrodeposition parameters on the microstructure and photocatalytic performance of the resulting anodes are explored. Enhancements in the transient water oxidation photocurrent densities by sixfold vs. unmodified TiO₂ -TaON were achieved with the use of the NiO_x /TiO₂ -TaON photoanodes. Long-term stability tests reveal a slow but persistent degradation of the performance of the multicomponent photocatalysts under the severely oxidizing conditions of water photo-oxidation coincident with continuous morphological changes in the NiO_x deposits.

Keywords: electrodeposition; nickel oxide; tantalum oxynitride; water splitting.

Abstract

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