Colloidal WO3 Nanowires as a Versatile Route to Prepare a Photoanode for Solar Water Splitting

This work describes a synthetic method to produce a WO3 nanowire as well as to prepare photoanodes by colloidal nanowire deposition. We also studied the influence of a nanowire phase on the photoanode performance for water splitting. Among the nanowires synthesized by using nonhydrolytic media, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ChemSusChem 2012-12, Vol.5 (12), p.2341-2347
Main Authors: Gonçalves, Ricardo H., Leite, Lucas D. T., Leite, Edson R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
colloids
electrochemistry
microporous materials
Nanowires
thin films
tungsten
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Summary:This work describes a synthetic method to produce a WO3 nanowire as well as to prepare photoanodes by colloidal nanowire deposition. We also studied the influence of a nanowire phase on the photoanode performance for water splitting. Among the nanowires synthesized by using nonhydrolytic media, the orthorhombic WO3⋅H2O nanowire produced a photoanode with excellent performance (a photocurrent of 1.96 mA cm−2 at 1.23 VRHE) and good photocurrent stability during long‐term analysis (chronoamperometry test). The structural and photoelectrochemical characterization showed the importance of nanostructural features such as exposed (200), (020), and (002) facets and porosity in the WO3 photoanode performance. Wired for success: We describe a synthetic method to produce WO3 nanowires as photoanodes through colloidal nanowire deposition. Among the several nanowires synthesized in non‐hydrolytic media, orthorhombic WO3⋅H2O nanowires show the best performance as photoanode and also good photocurrent stability during long‐term analysis. Structural and photoelectrochemical characterization shows the importance of nanostructural features in WO3 photoanode performance.
ISSN:1864-5631
1864-564X
DOI:10.1002/cssc.201200484