Earth abundant transition metal ferrite nanoparticles anchored ZnO nanorods as efficient and stable photoanodes for solar water splitting

Abstract

Poor light absorption, severe surface charge recombination and fast degradation are the key challenges with ZnO nanostructures based electrodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Here, this study attempts to design an efficient and durable nano-heterojunction photoelectrode by integrating earth abundant chemically stable transition metal spinel ferrites MFe2O4 (M = Co and Ni) nano-particles on ZnO Nanorod arrays. The low band gap magnetic ferrites improve the solar energy harvesting ability of the nano-heterojunction electrodes in ultraviolet–visible light region resulting in a maximum increase of 105% and 190% in photocurrent density and applied bias photon-to-current efficiency, respectively, compared to pristine ZnO nanorods. The favourable type-II band alignment at the ferrites/ZnO nano-heterojunction provides significantly enhanced photo-generated carrier separation and transfer, endowing the excellent solar H2 evolution ability (743 and 891 μmol cm−2 h−1for ZnO/CoFe2O4 and ZnO/NiFe2O4, respectively) of the photoanodes by using sacrificial agent. The hybrid nanostructures deliver long term stability of the electrode against photocorrosion. This work demonstrates an easy but effective strategy to develop low-cost earth abundant ferrites-based heterojunction electrodes, which offers excellent PEC activity and stability.