State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Sciences & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, P. R. China.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, P. R. China.
Dalton Trans. 2022 Dec 6;51(47):18109-18117. doi: 10.1039/d2dt03089f.
It is of practical significance to manufacture high-performance and durable semiconductor heterojunctions for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Herein, hydrophilic polypyrrole and graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) co-decorated ZnO nanorod arrays were synthesized as a photoanode by facile spin-coating and plasma-treatment methods. On the one hand, g-CN nanosheets are modified on ZnO nanorod arrays to broaden the light-absorption range and suppress the recombination of photogenerated charges. On the other hand, the polypyrrole coating layer inhibits the dissolution and corrosion of ZnO nanorods and constructs a p-n heterojunction with ZnO to further promote the separation and transfer of photogenerated charge carriers. Furthermore, its hydrophilic surface provides a vast electrochemically active surface area for efficient charge/mass transfer. As a result, the as-prepared photoanode exhibits an enhanced PEC performance with a distinctly increased photocurrent and remarkably ameliorated stability in contrast to the ZnO photoanode. This research would provide an innovative perspective on the design of organic/inorganic semiconductor heterojunctions with excellent performance and stability for PEC water-splitting systems.
制造用于光电化学 (PEC) 水分解的高性能和耐用的半导体异质结具有实际意义。在此，通过简便的旋涂和等离子体处理方法，合成了亲水性聚吡咯和石墨相氮化碳 (g-CN) 共修饰的 ZnO 纳米棒阵列作为光阳极。一方面，g-CN 纳米片修饰在 ZnO 纳米棒阵列上，以拓宽光吸收范围并抑制光生电荷的复合。另一方面，聚吡咯涂层抑制了 ZnO 纳米棒的溶解和腐蚀，并与 ZnO 构建了 p-n 异质结，进一步促进了光生载流子的分离和转移。此外，其亲水表面为高效的电荷/质量转移提供了广阔的电化学活性表面积。因此，与 ZnO 光阳极相比，所制备的光阳极表现出增强的 PEC 性能，明显提高了光电流，并显著改善了稳定性。这项研究为设计具有优异性能和稳定性的用于 PEC 水分解系统的有机/无机半导体异质结提供了一个创新视角。
