Nitrogen and cobalt co-doped zinc oxide nanowires - Viable photoanodes for hydrogen generation via photoelectrochemical water splitting

JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES

卷:299

Article

Patel, Prasad Prakash¹  Hanumantha, Prashanth Jampani²  Velikokhatnyi, Oleg I.^2,3  Datta, Moni Kanchan^2,3  Hong, Daeho²  Gattu, Bharat¹  Poston, James A.⁴  Manivannan, Ayyakkannu⁴  Kumta, Prashant N.^1,2,3,5,6 

[1] Univ Pittsburgh, Swanson Sch Engn, Dept Chem & Petr Engn, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA

[2] Univ Pittsburgh, Swanson Sch Engn, Dept Bioengn, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA

[3] Univ Pittsburgh, Ctr Complex Engineered Multifunct Mat, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA

[4] Natl Energy Technol Lab, US Dept Energy, Morgantown, WV 26507 USA

[5] Univ Pittsburgh, Swanson Sch Engn, Mech Engn & Mat Sci, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA

[6] Univ Pittsburgh, Sch Dent Med, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 USA

关键词: Photoelectrochemical water splitting;    Nanowires;    Hydrothermal;    Cobalt doping;    Doped zinc oxide;    Nitrogen doping;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.08.027

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has been considered as a promising and environmentally benign approach for efficient and economic hydrogen generation by utilization of solar energy. Development of semiconductor materials with low band gap, high photoelectrochemical activity and stability has been of particular interest for a viable PEC water splitting system. In this study, Co doped ZnO, (Zn0.95Co0.05)O nanowires (NWs) was selected as the composition for further co-doping with nitrogen by comparing solar to hydrogen efficiency (SHE) of ZnO NWs with that of various compositions of (Zn1-xCox)O NWs (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1). Furthermore, nanostructured vertically aligned Co and N-doped ZnO, (Zn1-xCox)O:N NWs (x = 0.05) have been studied as photoanodes for PEC water splitting. An optimal SHE of 1.39% the highest reported so far to the best of our knowledge for ZnO based photoanodes was obtained for the co-doped NWs, (Zn0.95Co0.05)O:N - 600 NWs generated at 600 degrees C in ammonia atmosphere. Further, (Zn0.95Co0.05)O:N-600 NWs exhibited excellent photoelectrochemical stability under illumination compared to pure ZnO NWs. These promising results suggest the potential of (Zn0.95Co0.05) 0:N-600 NWs as a viable photoanode in PEC water splitting cell. Additionally, theoretical first principles

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