Abstract
Tailoring conductive polymers with inorganic photocatalysts, which provide photoinduced electron-hole generation, have significantly enhanced composites leading to excellent photoelectrodes. In this work, MnFe2O4 nanoparticles prepared by a hydrothermal method were combined with polyaniline to prepare mixed (hybrid) slurries, which were cast onto flexible FTO to prepare photoelectrodes. The resulting photoelectrodes were characterized by XRD, FESEM, HRTEM and UV-VIS. The photoelectrochemical performance was investigated by linear sweep voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The photocurrent achieved by MnFe2O4/Polyaniline was 400 μA/cm2 at 0.8 V vs. Ag/AgCl in Na2SO4 (pH = 2) at 100 mW/cm2, while polyaniline alone achieved only 25 μA/cm2 under the same conditions. The best MnFe2O4/Polyaniline displayed an incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) and applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) of 60% at 405 nm wavelength, and 0.17% at 0.8 V vs. Ag/AgCl, respectively. High and stable photoelectrochemical performance was achieved for more than 900 s in an acidic environment.
Highlights
Renewable and clean energy are, critically, important for future energy demand, to reduce reliance on fossil fuels that cause greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is an attractive approach to clean, cheap and environmentally friendly energy [4,5,6]. This technique converts water to hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) gases in the presence of photocatalysts illuminated with light. Several parameters influence both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and/or the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) including: the reduction potential for each conduction band sites of the photocatalysts, and the charge separation and transfer, as well as the electrolyte used in the water splitting system, its pH [7,8]
It has been observed that photocatalysts combined with certain other materials may result in significantly enhanced water splitting photocatalytic activity and durability due to the features of these hybrids, including excellent electron transfer properties, permeability to water, suppression of electron (e−)–hole (h+) recombination, uncomplicated preparative method and high electrochemical stability under highly acidic conditions [13,14,15]
Summary
Renewable and clean energy are, critically, important for future energy demand, to reduce reliance on fossil fuels that cause greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is an attractive approach to clean, cheap and environmentally friendly energy [4,5,6] This technique converts water to hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) gases in the presence of photocatalysts illuminated with light. It has been observed that photocatalysts combined with certain other materials may result in significantly enhanced water splitting photocatalytic activity and durability due to the features of these hybrids, including excellent electron transfer properties, permeability to water, suppression of electron (e−)–hole (h+) recombination, uncomplicated preparative method and high electrochemical stability under highly acidic conditions (a high efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction normally carried out under highly acidic conditions, as represented by the proton-reduction reaction) [13,14,15]. The polyaniline in PANi@MnFe2O4 photoelectrode facilitates fast photoinduced charge transfer rather than photo-corrosion of the photoelectrode
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