Efficient enhancement of hydrogen production by Ag/Cu{sub 2}O/ZnO tandem triple-junction photoelectrochemical cell

Journal Article · Mon Mar 23 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916224· OSTI ID:22398792

Liu, Ying; Ren, Feng; Chen, Chao; Liu, Chang; Xing, Zhuo; Liu, Dan; Xiao, Xiangheng; Wu, Wei; Zheng, Xudong; Liu, Yichao; Jiang, Changzhong ^[1]; Shen, Shaohua; Fu, Yanming ^[2]

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1. Center for Ion Beam Application and Center for Electron Microscopy, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China)
2. International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049 (China)

Highly efficient semiconductor photoelectrodes for solar hydrogen production through photocatalytic water splitting are a promising and challenge solution to solve the energy problems. In this work, Ag/Cu{sub 2}O/ZnO tandem triple-junction photoelectrode was designed and prepared. An increase of 11 times of photocurrent is achieved in the Ag/Cu{sub 2}O/ZnO photoelectrode comparing to that of the Cu{sub 2}O film. The high performance of the Ag/Cu{sub 2}O/ZnO film is due to the optimized design of the tandem triple-junction structure, where the localized surface Plasmon resonance of Ag and the hetero-junctions efficiently absorb solar energy, produce, and separate electron-hole pairs in the photocathode.

• OSTI ID: 22398792
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COPPER OXIDES
ELECTRIC CONTACTS
FILMS
HOLES
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
PHOTOCATALYSIS
PHOTOCATHODES
PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
PLASMONS
RESONANCE
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILVER
SOLAR ENERGY
SURFACES
ZINC OXIDES