Pulsed laser-deposited n-Si/NiO_x photoanodes for stable and efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting
Abstract
An electrocatalytic and stable nickel oxide (NiO_x) thin layer was successfully deposited on an n-Si (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), acting as a photoanode for efficient photo-oxidation of water under solar illumination. It was revealed that the formed n-Si/NiO_x heterojunction with good Schottky contact could improve photogenerated charge separation, and thus n-Si photoanodes deposited with a 105 nm-thick NiO_x electrocatalytic layer exhibited a photovoltage of ∼350 mV, leading to greatly improved photoelectrochemical performances for water oxidation. The stability of the photoanode was significantly enhanced with the increasing thickness of NiO_x protective layers. This study demonstrates a simple and effective method to enable the use of planar n-Si (100) substrates as efficient and durable photoanodes for practical solar water oxidation.
Additional Information
© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Received 19th January 2017; Accepted 14th May 2017; First published on 15 May 2017. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51672210, 51323011 and 51236007), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-13-0455), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2014KW07-02), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK 20141212) and the Nano Research Program of Suzhou City (ZXG201442). S. Shen is supported by the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of P. R. China (201335), the National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals, and the "Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities". S. S. Mao acknowledges the support from the Shenzhen Peacock Plan (No. 1208040050847074).Attached Files
Supplemental Material - c7cy00114b1_si.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 77805
- DOI
- 10.1039/c7cy00114b
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170526-095044384
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- 51672210
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- 51323011
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- 51236007
- Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University
- NCET-13-0455
- Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province
- 2014KW07-02
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- BK 20141212
- Nano Research Program of Suzhou City
- ZXG201442
- Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation
- 201335
- National Program for Support of Top-notch Young Professionals
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Shenzhen Peacock Plan
- 1208040050847074
- Created
-
2017-05-26Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- JCAP