3D branched nanowire heterojunction photoelectrodes for high-efficiency solar water splitting and H2 generation

Ke Sun; Yi Jing; Chun Li; Xiaofeng Zhang; Ryan Aguinaldo; Alireza Kargar; Kristian Madsen; Khaleda Banu; Yuchun Zhou; Yoshio Bando; Zhaowei Liu; Deli Wang

doi:10.1039/C2NR11952H

3D branched nanowire heterojunction photoelectrodes for high-efficiency solar water splitting and H₂ generation†

Ke Sun,^a Yi Jing,^a Chun Li,‡^ab Xiaofeng Zhang,^c Ryan Aguinaldo,^a Alireza Kargar,^a Kristian Madsen,^a Khaleda Banu,^a Yuchun Zhou,^a Yoshio Bando,^b Zhaowei Liu^a and Deli Wang*^ade

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* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA
E-mail: dwang@ece.ucsd.edu

^b International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Material Science, Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan

^c Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 109 Remin Street, Changchun, Jilin, China

^d Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA

^e California Institute of Telecommunication and Information Technology, University of California, Gilman Dr, La Jolla, San Diego 9500, CA, USA

Abstract

We report the fabrication of a three dimensional branched ZnO/Si heterojunction nanowire array by a two-step, wafer-scale, low-cost, solution etching/growth method and its use as photoelectrode in a photoelectrochemical cell for high efficiency solar powered water splitting. Specifically, we demonstrate that the branched nanowire heterojunction photoelectrode offers improved light absorption, increased photocurrent generation due to the effective charge separation in Si nanowire backbones and ZnO nanowire branching, and enhanced gas evolution kinetics because of the dramatically increased surface area and decreased radius of curvature. The branching nanowire heterostructures offer direct functional integration of different materials for high efficiency water photoelectrolysis and scalable photoelectrodes for clean hydrogen fuel generation.

Nanoscale

3D branched nanowire heterojunction photoelectrodes for high-efficiency solar water splitting and H₂ generation†

Abstract

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3D branched nanowire heterojunction photoelectrodes for high-efficiency solar water splitting and H₂ generation

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