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Hot electron assisted photoelectrochemical water splitting from Au-decorated ZnO@TiO2 nanorods array

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Abstract

Engineering of semiconductor nanomaterials is critical to enhance the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for water splitting. However, semiconductors often show the low light absorption, slow charge transfer, and easy recombination of carriers, thus leading to the low catalytic efficiency. In this work, we show facile synthesis of ZnO@TiO2 core-shell nanorods (NRs) arrays modified with Au nanoparticles (NPs) as the photoelectrode for PEC water splitting. Impressively, the obtained ZnO@TiO2 (15 nm)/Au(8 nm) array shows the maximum photocurrent density of 3.14 mA/cm2 at 1.2 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), 2.6 times and 1.7 times higher than those obtained from ZnO NRs and ZnO@TiO2(15 nm) arrays. The electric-field simulation and transient absorption spectroscopy show that the Au-decorated core-shell nanostructures have an enhanced hot electron generation and prolonged decay time, indicating effective charge transfer and recombination inhibition of carriers. This work provides an efficient preparation strategy for photoelectrodes as well as great potential for the large-scale development of this technology.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21975060 and 21673053, X. L. W. and 52072354, H. Y. L.) and Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (X. L. W.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Hongdong Li, Fei Wang, Guodong Li, Xiaoli Wang & Zhiyong Tang

  2. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Hongdong Li, Guodong Li, Xiaoli Wang & Zhiyong Tang

  3. Key Laboratory of Eco-chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Hongdong Li

  4. Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, Beijing, 100095, China

    Hongyan Liu

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  1. Hongdong Li
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  2. Hongyan Liu
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  4. Guodong Li
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  5. Xiaoli Wang
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Correspondence to Xiaoli Wang.

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Li, H., Liu, H., Wang, F. et al. Hot electron assisted photoelectrochemical water splitting from Au-decorated ZnO@TiO2 nanorods array. Nano Res. 15, 5824–5830 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4203-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4203-z

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