Highly Conductive Cable‐Like Bicomponent Titania Photoanode Approaching Limitation of Electron and Hole Collection |
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Authors: | Zhangliu Tian Dong Wang Kejun Bu Jie Lin Shaoning Zhang Wei Zhao Peng Qin Fuqiang Huang |
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Affiliation: | 1. State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, P. R. China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China;3. State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, P. R. China |
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Abstract: | TiO2‐based materials are cheap and stable choices for photoelectrochemical devices. However, the activity is still limited by the inefficient charge extraction. Here a highly conductive cable‐like bicomponent titania photoanode, consisting of reduced anatase‐coated TiO2‐B nanowires, is proposed to simultaneously establish effective electron and hole transport channels separately, which meets the requirements of electronic dynamics for efficient water splitting. A synergistic effect of charge separation from the built‐in electric field is demonstrated with this 1D TiO2‐B/anatase heterojunction, in which a high electron collection efficiency of up to 97.1% at 0.6 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode is achieved. The efficient electron collection approaching the limitation is also attributed to the large electron conducting region in the photoanode. Moreover, the O‐deficient amorphous layer is found to be more catalytic toward the oxygen evolution reaction through quantifying rate constants for charge recombination and charge transfer. It can reduce onset potential and suppress charge‐carrier recombination simultaneously, prompting surface hole collection efficiency up to 95% at 0.6 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. |
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Keywords: | conductive cable‐like nanowires electron collection hole collection photoelectrochemical devices |
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