Hierarchical nanowire arrays based on carbon nanotubes and Co3O4 decorated ZnO for enhanced photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Mu Li, Kun Chang, Tao Wang, Lequan Liu, Huabin Zhang, Peng Li, Jinhua Ye

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

A highly enhanced activity for photoelectrochemical water splitting was achieved by fabricating carbon nanotube (CNT) and Co3O4 decorated hierarchical ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays via a facile stepwise synthesis strategy. The ternary CNT-ZnO-Co3O4 NW composite exhibits an increased photocurrent density (1.9 mA cm-2 at 0.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl, 2.7 times larger than that of the pristine ZnO NWs) and improved incident photon to current conversion efficiency (52.5% at 340 nm, 5.1 times higher than that of the pristine ZnO NWs) as a photoanode under AM 1.5G simulated sunlight. This enhancement is attributed to the specific heterogeneous ternary architecture, which results in promoted electron-hole charge separation and transfer, decreased water oxidation overpotential as well as increased reaction rates of water splitting by decorating ZnO NWs with CNTs and Co3O4.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)13731-13737
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume3
Issue number26
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 14 2015
Externally publishedYes

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