A TiO(2) nanorod and perylene diimide based inorganic/organic nanoheterostructure photoanode for photoelectrochemical urea oxidation

Visible light-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) urea oxidation using inorganic/organic nano-heterostructure (NH) photoanodes is an attractive method for hydrogen (H(2)) production. In this article, inorganic/organic NHs (TiO(2)/PDIEH) consisting of a N,N-bis(2-ethylhexyl)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PDIEH) thin layer over TiO(2) nanorods (NRs) were fabricated for the PEC urea oxidation reaction (UOR). In these NHs, a PDIEH layer was anchored on TiO(2) NR arrays using the spin-coating technique, which is beneficial for the uniform deposition of PDIEH on TiO(2) NRs. Uniform deposition facilitated adequate interface contact between PDIEH and TiO(2) NRs. TiO(2)/PDIEH NHs achieved a high current density of 1.1 mA cm(−2) at 1.96 V(RHE) compared to TiO(2) NRs. TiO(2)/PDIEH offers long-term stability under light illumination with 90.21% faradaic efficiency. TiO(2)/PDIEH exhibits a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 0.52%. This outcome opens up new opportunities for inorganic/organic NHs for high-performance PEC urea oxidation.