School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore.
Nanotechnology. 2012 Jun 15;23(23):235401. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/23/23/235401.
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods coated with silver (Ag) film on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET)flexible substrate were used as the photo anode for water splitting. The hybrid nanostructures were prepared via low-temperature hydrothermal growth and electron beam evaporation. The effects of plasmonic enhanced absorption, surface recombination inhibition and improved charge transport are investigated by varying the Ag thickness. Light trapping and absorption enhancement are further studied by optimizing the curvature of the PET substrates. The maximum short circuit current density (JSC, 0.616 mA cm -2) and the photoelectron conversion efficiency (PCE, 0.81%) are achieved with an optimized Ag film thickness of 10 nm and substrate bending radius of 6.0 mm. The maximum JSC and PCE are seven times and ten times, respectively, higher than those of the bare ZnO nanorods on flexible substrates without bending. The overall PEC performance improvement is attributed to the plasmonic effects induced by Ag film and improved charge transport due to inhibition of ZnO surface charge recombination. Enhanced light trapping (harvesting) induced by bending the PET substrates further improved the overall efficiency.
在聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）柔性衬底上涂有银（Ag）膜的氧化锌（ZnO）纳米棒被用作水分解的光阳极。通过低温水热生长和电子束蒸发制备了混合纳米结构。通过改变 Ag 的厚度，研究了等离子体增强吸收、表面复合抑制和提高电荷输运的效果。通过优化 PET 衬底的曲率进一步研究了光捕获和吸收增强。在优化的 Ag 膜厚度为 10nm 和衬底弯曲半径为 6.0mm 的情况下，实现了最大短路电流密度（JSC，0.616mAcm-2）和光电转换效率（PCE，0.81%）。与没有弯曲的柔性衬底上的裸 ZnO 纳米棒相比，最大 JSC 和 PCE 分别提高了七倍和十倍。整体 PEC 性能的提高归因于 Ag 膜引起的等离子体效应以及抑制 ZnO 表面电荷复合引起的电荷输运改善。弯曲 PET 衬底引起的增强光捕获（收集）进一步提高了整体效率。
