Toward non-precious nanocomposite photocatalyst: An efficient ternary photoanode TiO2 nanotube/Co9S8/polyoxometalate for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract

At present the photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting achieves a very high efficiency, but the development of the efficient and inexpensive photoanode materials is still desired for practical application. Herein, we fabricate a composite photoanode consisting of TiO2 nanotube arrays modified with polyoxometalate (POM) and Co9S8, in which POM aims to facilitate charge separation and Co9S8 acts as good electron transport mediator. It is the first introduction of Co9S8 into PEC water oxidation system. Although these three components are all non-precious inorganic materials, the photocurrent density of the TiO2/Co9S8/POM composite photoanode reaches up to 1.12mA/cm2 at 1.23V vs RHE under simulated solar light illumination, which is among the highest PEC water oxidation photoanodes. Particularly, the TiO2/Co9S8/POM composite photoanode shows an 8.5-fold improvement in photocurrent density compared to the pristine TiO2 nanotube array photoanode. The measurements of EIS and Mott-Schottky plots revealed that the TiO2/Co9S8/POM composite photoanode held the best efficiency of charge separation and transport at the interface as well as the highest carrier density. The aforementioned results demonstrate a feasible approach to improving the PEC water splitting efficiency by dual modification of TiO2 nanotube arrays with low-cost materials.