Efficient and Stable Photoelectrochemical Seawater Splitting with TiO2@g-C3N4 Nanorod Arrays Decorated by Co-Pi

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• 作者：Yuangang Li ; Rongrong Wang ; Huajing Li ; Xiaoliang Wei ; Juan Feng ; Kaiqiang Liu ; Yongqiang Dang ; Anning Zhou
• 刊名：Journal of Physical Chemistry C
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：September 3, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：119
• 期：35
• 页码：20283-20292
• 全文大小：648K
• ISSN：1932-7455

文摘

Co-Pi decorated TiO₂@graphitic carbon nitrides (g-C₃N₄) nanorod arrays (denoted as CCNRs) with different mass ratios of g-C₃N₄ have been constructed on the FTO substrate through three processes, hydrothermal growth, chemical bath deposition and electrodeposition. First, TiO₂ nanorod arrays were grown onto a FTO substrate by a hydrothermal method. Second, g-C₃N₄ was coated onto the TiO₂ nanorod arrays by immersing the above substrate with TiO₂ nanorod arrays into a solution of urea and then heated at higher temperature. In this procedure, the amount of the g-C₃N₄ on the TiO₂ nanorod arrays can be controlled by tuning the concentration of the urea solution. At last, Co-Pi were decorated on the surface of the TiO₂@g-C₃N₄ by electrodeposition. The as-prepared CCNRs were characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM, XPS, UV鈥搗is, and FTIR, respectively, which illustrated that Co-Pi moieties were successfully decorated on the hybrid TiO₂@g-C₃N₄ nanorod arrays. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements have demonstrated that the prepared CCNRs serve as an efficient and stable photoanode for PEC seawater splitting. The photocurrent density reaches 1.6 mA/cm² under 100 mW/cm² (AM1.5G) light illumination at 1.23 V (RHE). More significantly, the CCNRs photoanode is quite stable during seawater splitting and the performance remain undiminished even after 10 h continuous illumination. Finally, a systematical photocatalytic mechanism of the Co-Pi decorated TiO₂@g-C₃N₄ was proposed, and it can be considered as potential explanation of enhanced PEC performance.