Enhanced water splitting with silver decorated GaN photoelectrode. (31st May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hou, Y; Syed, Z A; Smith, R; Athanasiou, M; Gong, Y; Yu, X; Bai, J; Wang, T
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 49:Number 26(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-05-31
• Subjects: III-nitrides -- water splitting -- photoelectrode -- surface plasmon; Physics -- Periodicals; 530
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/49/26/265601
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3727

Abstract

Abstract: By means of a cost-effective approach, we demonstrate a GaN-based photoelectrode decorated with self-organized silver nano-islands employed for solar powered hydrogen generation, demonstrating 4 times increase in photocurrent compared with a reference sample without using any silver. Our photoelectrode exhibits a 60% incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. The enhanced hydrogen generation is attributed to a significantly increased carrier generation rate as a result of strongly localized electric fields induced by surface plasmon coupling effect. The silver coating also contributes to the good chemical stability of our photoelectrode in a strong alkali electrolyte. This work paves the way for the development of GaN and also InGaN based photoelectrodes with ultra-high solar hydrogen conversion efficiency.