Ta3N5-Nanorods enabling highly efficient water oxidation via advantageous light harvesting and charge collection

Efficient conversion of solar energy to hydrogen through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a strategic and promising goal towards clean, green and sustainable fuel production. The most important task in PEC water splitting is the development of an efficient and stable photoanode with eff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy & environmental science 2020, Vol.13 (5), p.1519-1530
Main Authors: Pihosh, Yuriy, Minegishi, Tsutomu, Nandal, Vikas, Higashi, Tomohiro, Katayama, Masao, Yamada, Taro, Sasaki, Yutaka, Seki, Kazuhiko, Suzuki, Yohichi, Nakabayashi, Mamiko, Sugiyama, Masakazu, Domen, Kazunari
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carrier transport
Charge transport
Current carriers
Domains
Electromagnetic absorption
Energy conversion
Energy conversion efficiency
Fuel production
Hydrogen-based energy
Nanorods
Oxidation
Oxygen evolution reactions
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Photovoltaic cells
Solar energy
Solar energy conversion
Splitting
Water splitting
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Summary:Efficient conversion of solar energy to hydrogen through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a strategic and promising goal towards clean, green and sustainable fuel production. The most important task in PEC water splitting is the development of an efficient and stable photoanode with effective solar light absorption, generation and separation of free charge carriers, and charge carrier transport to the surface for the oxygen evolution reaction; however, such requirements are challenging to achieve simultaneously. Here we show that this problem can be solved in polycrystalline Ta3N5-nanorods (Ta3N5-NRs) that consist of aggregated single crystalline domains. The fabricated highly-conductive photoanode with large grain domains provides enhanced light harvesting because of the efficient generation and extraction of charge carriers, which leads to a completely saturated photocurrent of 9.95 mA cm−2 at 1.05 V (versus RHE) and delivers a solar energy conversion efficiency of 2.72% for single-photon photoanodes.
ISSN:1754-5692
1754-5706
DOI:10.1039/d0ee00220h