Ge‐Mediated Modification in Ta3N5 Photoelectrodes with Enhanced Charge Transport for Solar Water Splitting. Issue 49 (14th October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Feng, Jianyong; Cao, Dapeng; Wang, Zhiqiang; Luo, Wenjun; Wang, Jiajia; Li, Zhaosheng; Zou, Zhigang
• Is Part Of: Chemistry. Volume 20:Issue 49(2014)
• Page Start: 16384
• Page End: 16390
• Publication Date: 2014-10-14
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/chem.201402760
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0947-6539

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Ta₃N₅ is a promising photoanode candidate for photoelectrochemical water splitting, with a band gap of about 2.1 eV and a theoretical solar‐to‐hydrogen efficiency as high as 15.9 % under AM 1.5 G 100 mW cm⁻² irradiation. However, the presently achieved highest photocurrent (ca. 7.5 mA cm⁻²) on Ta₃N₅ photoelectrodes under AM 1.5 G 100 mW cm⁻² is far from the theoretical maximum (ca. 12.9 mA cm⁻²), which is possibly due to serious bulk recombination (poor bulk charge transport and charge separation) in Ta₃N₅ photoelectrodes. In this study, we show that volatilization of intentionally added Ge (5 %) during the synthesis of Ta₃N₅ promotes the electron transport and thereby improves the charge‐separation efficiency in bulk Ta₃N₅ photoanode, which affords a 320 % increase of the highest photocurrent comparing with that of pure Ta₃N₅ photoanode under AM 1.5 G 100 mW cm⁻² simulated sunlight.</p> </abstract>