Synthesis of AuPd nanoparticle-decorated graphene-coated ZnO nanorod arrays with enhanced photoelectrochemical performance and stability

Yuzhi Zhang; Yunlong Zhang; Yunfeng Guo; Lingnan Wu; Yangqiao Liu; Lixing Song

doi:10.1039/c8ra09028a

Synthesis of AuPd nanoparticle-decorated graphene-coated ZnO nanorod arrays with enhanced photoelectrochemical performance and stability

RSC Adv. 2019 Jan 21;9(5):2666-2672. doi: 10.1039/c8ra09028a. eCollection 2019 Jan 18.

Authors

Yuzhi Zhang^{1

2}, Yunlong Zhang¹, Yunfeng Guo^{1

3}, Lingnan Wu¹, Yangqiao Liu¹, Lixing Song¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Inorganic Coating Materials CAS, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1295 Dingxi Road Shanghai 200050 China yzzhang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
² Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University No. 99 Shangda Road Shanghai 200444 China.

Abstract

AuPd nanoparticle-decorated graphene-coated ZnO nanorod (ZNR) array electrodes (ZNR@Gr/AuPd) were synthesized via electrostatic self-assembly followed by solution reduction methods. The morphologies of ZNR@Gr/AuPd were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), which indicated that ZNR was well-coated by graphene with 3-5 layers and uniformly decorated with AuPd nanoparticles (about 5 nm). UV-Vis diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence spectra were obtained to analyze the optical properties. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties were also evaluated; the results indicated that the photocurrent density was 2.27 mA cm^-2 at 0.8 V versus Ag/AgCl, which was 7.1 times that of bare ZNR. The sample also displayed enhanced PEC stability (91.3%), which prevented photocorrosion. Finally, a proposed PEC mechanism of ZNR@Gr/AuPd was illustrated to explain the charge transfer and the role of graphene and AuPd nanoparticles in the improvement of PEC performance and stability. The ZNR@Gr/AuPd electrode shows excellent PEC performance and stability, exhibiting promising potential in the generation of H₂.