Photocatalytic generation of hydrogen by core-shell WO₃/BiVO₄ nanorods with ultimate water splitting efficiency.

Efficient photocatalytic water splitting requires effective generation, separation and transfer of photo-induced charge carriers that can hardly be achieved simultaneously in a single material. Here we show that the effectiveness of each process can be separately maximized in a nanostructured heterojunction with extremely thin absorber layer. We demonstrate this concept on WO3/BiVO4+CoPi core-shell nanostructured photoanode that achieves near theoretical water splitting efficiency.

Ubiquitous element approach to plasmonic enhanced photocatalytic water splitting: the case of Ti@TiO2 core-shell nanostructure.

We demonstrate a new approach to plasmonic enhanced photocatalytic water splitting by developing a novel core-shell Ti@TiO2 brush nanostructure where an elongated Ti nanorod forms a plasmonic core that concentrates light inside of a nanotubular anodic TiO2 shell. Following the ubiquitous element approach aimed at providing an enhanced device functionality without the usage of noble or rare earth elements, we utilized only inexpensive Ti to create a complex Ti@TiO2 nanostructure with an enhanced UV and Vis photocatalytic activity that emerges from the interplay between the surface plasmon resonance in the Ti core, Vis light absorption in the Ti-rich oxide layer at the Ti/TiO2 interface and UV light absorption in the nanotubular TiO2 shell.

Nanostructured WO3 /BiVO4 photoanodes for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Nanostructured photoanodes based on well-separated and vertically oriented WO3 nanorods capped with extremely thin BiVO4 absorber layers are fabricated by the combination of Glancing Angle Deposition and normal physical sputtering techniques. The optimized WO3 -NRs/BiVO4 photoanode modified with Co-Pi oxygen evolution co-catalyst shows remarkably stable photocurrents of 3.2 and 5.