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Enhanced photoelectrochemical performance of n-Si/n-ZnO nanowire arrays using graphene interlayers

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Abstract

We report a powerful approach to improve the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of the Si/ZnO nanowire array (NWA) photoanodes via incorporating a graphene layer. The Si/Graphene/ZnO NWAs shows the highest photocurrent, which is, respectively, 1.6 times of that for the Si/ZnO NWAs, and 6.2 times of that for the Si wafers. The introducing of ZnO NWAs and graphene greatly reduces the light reflectance, especially in the UV light region. Carrier recombination at the effective n-Si/n-ZnO junction can compensate the high valence band level of Si and thus enhances the contribution of Si to the photocurrent. The graphene interlayers offer a fast passway for the photogenerated electrons in ZnO to recombine with the photogenerated holes in Si, resulting in enhanced PEC performance of the Si/graphene/ZnO NWAs. This study demonstrates the n/graphene/n heterojunction is a promising configuration for efficient solar water splitting.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (51602021), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M580979) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-TP-15-107A1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Resource Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 10083, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiming Bai, Fuxin Liu, Jia Liu & Yinghua Zhang

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  1. Zhiming Bai
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  2. Fuxin Liu
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  3. Jia Liu
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  4. Yinghua Zhang
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Correspondence to Yinghua Zhang.

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Bai, Z., Liu, F., Liu, J. et al. Enhanced photoelectrochemical performance of n-Si/n-ZnO nanowire arrays using graphene interlayers. J Mater Sci 52, 10497–10505 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1235-y

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