The fabrication of In2O3/In2S3/Ag nanocubes for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

Rui Xu; Haohua Li; Wenwen Zhang; Zepeng Yang; Guiwu Liu; Ziwei Xu; Haicheng Shao; Guanjun Qiao

doi:10.1039/C5CP05833C

The fabrication of In₂O₃/In₂S₃/Ag nanocubes for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting†

Rui Xu,‡^a Haohua Li,‡^a Wenwen Zhang,^a Zepeng Yang,^a Guiwu Liu,*^a Ziwei Xu,^a Haicheng Shao^a and Guanjun Qiao*^ab

* Corresponding authors

^a School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
E-mail: gwliu76@ujs.edu.cn, gjqiao@ujs.edu.cn
Fax: +86-511-88791800
Tel: +86-511-88791800

^b State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China

Abstract

In this work, for the first time, a three-component In₂O₃/In₂S₃/Ag nanocomposite heterostructured photoanode is prepared on a F-doped SnO₂ (FTO) glass substrate. The three-component photoanode exhibits significantly enhanced photoelectrochemical properties compared with the single-component (In₂O₃) and two-component (In₂O₃/In₂S₃ or In₂O₃/Ag) systems. Ag nanoparticles deposited on the surface of In₂O₃/In₂S₃ nanocubes can facilitate the separation of photogenerated charge carriers and enhance the absorption of visible light. In I–V curves, the In₂O₃/In₂S₃/Ag photoanode generates a remarkable photocurrent density of 8.75 mA cm⁻² (at 0 V vs. SCE), which is higher than those of the two-component In₂O₃/In₂S₃ (4.47 mA cm⁻²) and In₂O₃/Ag (3.50 mA cm⁻²). Furthermore, it also gives efficiency as high as 67% around 350 nm in the incident photon to electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectrum. These results open up a promising avenue for the design and fabrication of novel heterojunctions for photoelectrochemical water splitting.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5CP05833C
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 29 Sep 2015
Accepted: 14 Dec 2015
First published: 17 Dec 2015

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Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 2710-2717

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The fabrication of In₂O₃/In₂S₃/Ag nanocubes for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

R. Xu, H. Li, W. Zhang, Z. Yang, G. Liu, Z. Xu, H. Shao and G. Qiao, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 2710 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP05833C

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