Abstract
To achieve a high solar‐to‐hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency, delicate strategies toward high photocurrent together with sufficient onset potential should be developed. Herein, an SnS semiconductor is reported as a high‐performance photocathode. Use of proper sulfur precursor having weak dipole moment allows to obtain high‐quality dense SnS nanoplates with enlarged favorable crystallographic facet, while suppressing inevitable anisotropic growth. Furthermore, the introducing Ga2O3 layer between SnS and TiO2 in SnS photocathodes efficiently improves the charge transport kinetics without charge trapping. The SnS photocathode reveals the highest photocurrent density of 28 mA cm−2 at 0 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. Overall solar water splitting is demonstrated for the first time by combining the optimized SnS photocathode with a Mo:BiVO4 photoanode, achieving a STH efficiency of 1.7% and long‐term stability of 24 h. High performance and low‐cost SnS photocathode represent a promising new material in the field of photoelectrochemical solar water splitting.
Highlights
To achieve a high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency, delicate theoretical maximum.[2,3] these costly PEC devices need to be fabricated strategies toward high photocurrent together with sufficient onset potential through complicated and time-consuming should be developed
The SnS molecular inks were prepared by dissolving the sulfur precursor and SnCl2 to 2-methoxyethanol (2ME) in a Sn/S molar ratio of 1.5, which enabled the fabrication of defect-free phase-pure SnS.[21]
We have demonstrated a high-performance photocathode using a low-cost SnS semiconductor, which has a small Eg (≈1.2 eV), good optoelectronic properties, and no secondary phase
Summary
The SnS nanoplate with the (101) facet tends to grow sparsely due to its anisotropic crystal nature.[27]. Significant red-shifting of the S−C stretching frequency in the TAA-ink indicates a significant decrease in the force constant owing to a low bond strength between sulfur and carbon as compared to that in the TU-ink (inset of Figure 2a). This indicates that TAA has weaker dipole moments than TU.[31] In both TU-SnS and TAA-SnS, the peaks corresponding to the breathing and shear vibrational mode of Sn−S appeared at ≈260 and ≈300 cm−1, respectively.[32,33] The breathing vibrational mode representing the vibrations along the [010]. The fast nucleation of numerous nuclei leads to a kinetically regulated and dense growth of the TAA-SnS nanoplates with an enlarged (101) facet
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