查找使用阿拉丁产品的科研文献

Enhanced electron collection in a particulate LaTiO2N photoanode assembled with an inserted ZnO nanorod array for photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Xiaoli Liu,Hezhou Huang,Xin Luo,Jianqiang Luo,Shujuan Liu,Yangbo Zhong,Yifan Zhang,Jiaojiao Ma,Feng-Qiang Xiong

The collection of photogenerated electrons is an essential part of the photoelectrochemical process on a semiconductor photoanode, which is often a bottleneck in a particulate photoanode. Herein, by ingeniously inserting a transparent electron-conducting ZnO nanorod array into a particulate LaTiO2N photoanode, bridges for electron transport are constructed between the nanoporous micron oxynitride particles and the AZO substrate, which improves the photocurrent from tens of μA cm−2 to 2.87 mA cm−2 at 1.23 VRHE. Furthermore, the electron transport in LaTiO2N particles is improved by increasing the electron carrier density of LaTiO2N micron particles. After a simple annealing treatment in an inert atmosphere at 713 °C, the electron carrier density of LaTiO2N micron particles is increased significantly as shown by EPR spectroscopy and Mott–Schottky analysis. The bulk resistance of an assembled particulate LaTiO2N photoanode is reduced with the increase of electron carrier density as shown by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The apparent charge separation efficiency on the photoanode assembled from annealed LaTiO2N micron particles is 1.6 times that assembled from as-prepared LaTiO2N micron particles, and the photocurrent for water oxidation is increased by 62%, reaching 4.66 mA cm−2. By improving electron collection, the conductive array insertion strategy together with particle carrier density optimization provides a method to increase the photocurrent by 2 orders of magnitude reaching the mA cm−2 level on a photoanode prepared from visible-light photocatalyst powder.