Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (12): 1884-1893.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(20)63637-3

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Decorating non-noble metal plasmonic Al on a TiO2/Cu2O photoanode to boost performance in photoelectrochemical water splitting

Shaoce Zhanga, Zhifeng Liua,b, Weiguo Yanb, Zhengang Guoa,b, Mengnan Ruana,b   

  1. a School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China;
    b Tianjin Key Laboratory of Building Green Functional Materials, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China
  • Received:2020-03-13 Revised:2020-04-21 Online:2020-12-18 Published:2020-08-14
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the Science Funds of Tianjin for Distinguished Young Scholar (17JCJQJC44800) and Key Research and Development Plan of Tianjin (19YFSLQY00020).

Abstract: Designing low-cost and high-performance photoelectrodes with improved light harvesting and charge separation rates is significant in photoelectrochemical water splitting. Here, a novel TiO2/Cu2O/Al/Al2O3 photoelectrode is manufactured by depositing plasmonic nanoparticles of the non-noble metal Al on the surface of a TiO2/Cu2O core/shell heterojunction for the first time. The Al nanoparticles, which exhibit a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect and are substantially less expensive than noble metals such as Au and Ag, generate hot electron-hole pairs and amplify the electromagnetic field at the interface under illumination. The as-prepared TiO2/Cu2O/Al/Al2O3 photoelectrodes have an extended absorption range and enhanced carrier separation and transfer. Their photocurrent density of 4.52 mA·cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE represents an 1.84-fold improvement over that of TiO2/Cu2O. Specifically, the ultrathin Al2O3 passivation layer spontaneously generated on the surface of Al in air could act as a protective layer to significantly increase its stability. In this work, the synergistic effect of the heterojunctions and the SPR effect of the non-noble metal Al significantly improve the photoelectrode performance, providing a novel concept for the design of electrodes with good properties and high practicability.

Key words: TiO2, Photoanode, Non-noble metal Al, Surface plasmon resonance, Photoelectrochemical water splitting