Cargando…

Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer

[Image: see text] Narrow-band-gap III–V semiconductor nanowires (NWs) with a suitable band structure and strong light-trapping ability are ideal for high-efficiency low-cost solar water-splitting systems. However, due to their nanoscale dimension, they suffer more severe corrosion by the electrolyte...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cui, Fan, Zhang, Yunyan, Fonseka, H. Aruni, Promdet, Premrudee, Channa, Ali Imran, Wang, Mingqing, Xia, Xueming, Sathasivam, Sanjayan, Liu, Hezhuang, Parkin, Ivan P., Yang, Hui, Li, Ting, Choy, Kwang-Leong, Wu, Jiang, Blackman, Christopher, Sanchez, Ana M., Liu, Huiyun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2021
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8289235/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34160197
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c03903
_version_ 1783724260350492672
author Cui, Fan
Zhang, Yunyan
Fonseka, H. Aruni
Promdet, Premrudee
Channa, Ali Imran
Wang, Mingqing
Xia, Xueming
Sathasivam, Sanjayan
Liu, Hezhuang
Parkin, Ivan P.
Yang, Hui
Li, Ting
Choy, Kwang-Leong
Wu, Jiang
Blackman, Christopher
Sanchez, Ana M.
Liu, Huiyun
author_facet Cui, Fan
Zhang, Yunyan
Fonseka, H. Aruni
Promdet, Premrudee
Channa, Ali Imran
Wang, Mingqing
Xia, Xueming
Sathasivam, Sanjayan
Liu, Hezhuang
Parkin, Ivan P.
Yang, Hui
Li, Ting
Choy, Kwang-Leong
Wu, Jiang
Blackman, Christopher
Sanchez, Ana M.
Liu, Huiyun
author_sort Cui, Fan
collection PubMed
description [Image: see text] Narrow-band-gap III–V semiconductor nanowires (NWs) with a suitable band structure and strong light-trapping ability are ideal for high-efficiency low-cost solar water-splitting systems. However, due to their nanoscale dimension, they suffer more severe corrosion by the electrolyte solution than the thin-film counterparts. Thus, short-term durability is the major obstacle for using these NWs for practical water-splitting applications. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that a thin layer (∼7 nm thick) of compact TiO(2) deposited by atomic layer deposition can provide robust protection to III–V NWs. The protected GaAs NWs maintain 91.4% of its photoluminescence intensity after 14 months of storage in ambient atmosphere, which suggests the TiO(2) layer is pinhole-free. Working as a photocathode for water splitting, they exhibited a 45% larger photocurrent density compared with unprotected counterparts and a high Faraday efficiency of 91% and can also maintain a record-long highly stable performance among narrow-band-gap III–V NW photoelectrodes; after 67 h photoelectrochemical stability test reaction in a strong acid electrolyte solution (pH = 1), they show no apparent indication of corrosion, which is in stark contrast to the unprotected NWs that fully failed after 35 h. These findings provide an effective way to enhance both stability and performance of III–V NW-based photoelectrodes, which are highly important for practical applications in solar-energy-based water-splitting systems.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8289235
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher American Chemical Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82892352021-07-20 Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer Cui, Fan Zhang, Yunyan Fonseka, H. Aruni Promdet, Premrudee Channa, Ali Imran Wang, Mingqing Xia, Xueming Sathasivam, Sanjayan Liu, Hezhuang Parkin, Ivan P. Yang, Hui Li, Ting Choy, Kwang-Leong Wu, Jiang Blackman, Christopher Sanchez, Ana M. Liu, Huiyun ACS Appl Mater Interfaces [Image: see text] Narrow-band-gap III–V semiconductor nanowires (NWs) with a suitable band structure and strong light-trapping ability are ideal for high-efficiency low-cost solar water-splitting systems. However, due to their nanoscale dimension, they suffer more severe corrosion by the electrolyte solution than the thin-film counterparts. Thus, short-term durability is the major obstacle for using these NWs for practical water-splitting applications. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that a thin layer (∼7 nm thick) of compact TiO(2) deposited by atomic layer deposition can provide robust protection to III–V NWs. The protected GaAs NWs maintain 91.4% of its photoluminescence intensity after 14 months of storage in ambient atmosphere, which suggests the TiO(2) layer is pinhole-free. Working as a photocathode for water splitting, they exhibited a 45% larger photocurrent density compared with unprotected counterparts and a high Faraday efficiency of 91% and can also maintain a record-long highly stable performance among narrow-band-gap III–V NW photoelectrodes; after 67 h photoelectrochemical stability test reaction in a strong acid electrolyte solution (pH = 1), they show no apparent indication of corrosion, which is in stark contrast to the unprotected NWs that fully failed after 35 h. These findings provide an effective way to enhance both stability and performance of III–V NW-based photoelectrodes, which are highly important for practical applications in solar-energy-based water-splitting systems. American Chemical Society 2021-06-23 2021-07-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8289235/ /pubmed/34160197 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c03903 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society Permits the broadest form of re-use including for commercial purposes, provided that author attribution and integrity are maintained (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Cui, Fan
Zhang, Yunyan
Fonseka, H. Aruni
Promdet, Premrudee
Channa, Ali Imran
Wang, Mingqing
Xia, Xueming
Sathasivam, Sanjayan
Liu, Hezhuang
Parkin, Ivan P.
Yang, Hui
Li, Ting
Choy, Kwang-Leong
Wu, Jiang
Blackman, Christopher
Sanchez, Ana M.
Liu, Huiyun
Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer
title Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer
title_full Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer
title_fullStr Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer
title_full_unstemmed Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer
title_short Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO(2) Layer
title_sort robust protection of iii–v nanowires in water splitting by a thin compact tio(2) layer
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8289235/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34160197
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c03903
work_keys_str_mv AT cuifan robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT zhangyunyan robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT fonsekaharuni robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT promdetpremrudee robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT channaaliimran robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT wangmingqing robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT xiaxueming robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT sathasivamsanjayan robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT liuhezhuang robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT parkinivanp robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT yanghui robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT liting robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT choykwangleong robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT wujiang robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT blackmanchristopher robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT sanchezanam robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer
AT liuhuiyun robustprotectionofiiivnanowiresinwatersplittingbyathincompacttio2layer