Mesoporous Ultrathin InO Nanosheet Cocatalysts on a Silicon Nanowire Photoanode for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting.

Vertical Si nanowire (NW) arrays are a promising photoanode material in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting field because of their highly efficient light absorption capability and large surface areas for PEC reactions. However, Si NW arrays always suffer from high overpotential, low photocurrent density, and low applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) due to their low surface catalytic activity and intense charge recombination. Here, we report an efficient oxygen evolution cocatalyst of optically transparent, mesoporous ultrathin (2.47 nm thick) InO nanosheets, which are coupled on the top of Si NW arrays. Combined with a conformal TiO thin film as an intermediate protective layer, this Si NW/TiO/InO (2.47 nm) heterostructured photoanode exhibited an extremely low onset potential of 0.6 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The Si NW/TiO/InO (2.47 nm) photoanode also showed a high photocurrent density of 27 mA cm at 1.23 V vs RHE, more than 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the Si NW/TiO photoanodes. This improvement in solar water splitting performance was attributed to the significantly promoted charge injection efficiency as a result of the InO nanosheet coupling. This work presents a promising pathway for developing efficient Si-based photoanodes by coupling ultrathin 2D cocatalysts.