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Title: New aspects of improving the performance of WO3 thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting by tuning the ultrathin depletion region

Abstract

In this paper, we explored a facile, scalable and effective method for substantially enhancing photocurrent and incident-photon-to-current efficiency of WO3 thin-film photoanodes by a mild reduction treatment under low oxygen pressure. Experimental data from photoelectrochemical and electrochemical impedance spectroscopies have shown that such treatment can increase the charge carrier density on WO3 photoanode surfaces resulting in improvements in hole collection efficiency and reduction in charge recombination. Despite a much thinner layer of WO3 (about 500 nm) compared to those in other published studies, the electrodes exhibited an ultra-high photocurrent density of 1.81 mA cm–2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE. This current density is one of the highest ones among WO3-based photoanodes described in literature. As a result, the proposed surface modulation approach offers an effective and scalable method to prepare high-performance thin film photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States)
  2. Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1495001
Report Number(s):
BNL-211262-2019-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2046-2069; RSCACL
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012704
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
RSC Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2046-2069
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Cen, Jiajie, Wu, Qiyuan, Yan, Danhua, Zhang, Wenrui, Zhao, Yue, Tong, Xiao, Liu, Mingzhao, and Orlov, Alexander. New aspects of improving the performance of WO3 thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting by tuning the ultrathin depletion region. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1039/C8RA08875F.
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Cen, Jiajie, Wu, Qiyuan, Yan, Danhua, Zhang, Wenrui, Zhao, Yue, Tong, Xiao, Liu, Mingzhao, & Orlov, Alexander. New aspects of improving the performance of WO3 thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting by tuning the ultrathin depletion region. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA08875F
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Cen, Jiajie, Wu, Qiyuan, Yan, Danhua, Zhang, Wenrui, Zhao, Yue, Tong, Xiao, Liu, Mingzhao, and Orlov, Alexander. Tue . "New aspects of improving the performance of WO3 thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting by tuning the ultrathin depletion region". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA08875F. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1495001.
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@article{osti_1495001,
title = {New aspects of improving the performance of WO3 thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting by tuning the ultrathin depletion region},
author = {Cen, Jiajie and Wu, Qiyuan and Yan, Danhua and Zhang, Wenrui and Zhao, Yue and Tong, Xiao and Liu, Mingzhao and Orlov, Alexander},
abstractNote = {In this paper, we explored a facile, scalable and effective method for substantially enhancing photocurrent and incident-photon-to-current efficiency of WO3 thin-film photoanodes by a mild reduction treatment under low oxygen pressure. Experimental data from photoelectrochemical and electrochemical impedance spectroscopies have shown that such treatment can increase the charge carrier density on WO3 photoanode surfaces resulting in improvements in hole collection efficiency and reduction in charge recombination. Despite a much thinner layer of WO3 (about 500 nm) compared to those in other published studies, the electrodes exhibited an ultra-high photocurrent density of 1.81 mA cm–2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE. This current density is one of the highest ones among WO3-based photoanodes described in literature. As a result, the proposed surface modulation approach offers an effective and scalable method to prepare high-performance thin film photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting.},
doi = {10.1039/C8RA08875F},
journal = {RSC Advances},
number = 2,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {1}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA08875F
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Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: a, Current density vs. potential under front-side AM 1.5 illumination for the as-prepared WO3 photoanodes (R-0). The vertical line indicates the thermodynamic potential for oxygen evolution (1.23 VRHE). b, Cross-sectional SEM image of WO3 thin film sample prepared by 40k laser pulses. c, UV-vis spectrum of as-prepared WO3more » photoanodes (R-0) with Tauc plot inserted. d, SEM image of as-prepared WO3 photoanodes (R-0).« less
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