Fabrication of foamed zinc oxide-silica spheres coupled with Ag–AgBr for high-efficiency photo-/electrocatalytic overall water splitting

Advanced photo-/electrocatalyst is devoted for O 2 and H 2 evolution reactions (OER and HER) with immense quantum conversions efficiency. Herein, a novel foamed zinc oxide-silica spheres and Ag–AgBr nanocomposite (Ag–AgBr/FZSS) was engineered and passes through a complete characterization profiling. The Ag–AgBr/FZSS possesses the distinctive porous surface with open cavities. The hierarchical morphology provides many active sites and mesoporous conducting channels for visible light absorption and charge carriers transportation. The Ag–AgBr/FZSS act as outperformed photo-/electrocatalyst for OER (overpotential 348 mV @ 10 mAcm −2 ) and HER (potential −217 mV @ 100 mAcm −2 ). While under illumination conditions it reduced to 337 mV and −195 mV with high quantum conversion efficiency (37.5%). The lustrous durability further justified as a highly efficient photo-/electrocatalyst for renewable energy conversions.