Three-dimensional ordered porous nanostructures have been considered as a key factor in developing high-performance photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting applications due to their high light absorption capacity and large surface area. In this study, the authors design and fabricate the three-dimensional ordered CdS/ZnO porous structures by the hard mould method. Firstly, polystyrene (PS) spheres were deposited on the indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive substrate; secondly, the gaps among the spheres were filled with ZnO material using electrochemical deposition; then the PS spheres were burned and formed the ordered porous structure of ZnO; finally, CdS nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of ZnO by wet chemical method to form a three-dimensional ordered CdS/ZnO porous structure.The photoelectrochemical water-splitting properties of the fabricated structures were studied and compared systematically. The results show that, under the irradiation of solar simulation, the efficiency of the optimised three-dimensional ordered CdS/ZnO porous structure is 3.4%, nearly 1.9 times higher than that of with 1.8% efficiency of thin-film CdS/ZnO structure at the same fabrication conditions.
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