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Lookup NU author(s): Cathal Burns, Dr Owen Woodford, Dr Su Stephens, Professor Elizabeth GibsonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This article reports the development of CuO|CuBi2O4 photocathodes stabilized by protective layers of TiO2, MgO, or NiO, with Pt or MoS2 nanoparticles serving as co-catalysts to facilitate H2 evolution. Most notably, this work demonstrates the first application of MgO as a protection/passivation layer for photocathodes in a water-splitting cell. All configurations of photocathodes were studied structurally, morphologically, and photoelectrochemically revealing that CuO|CuBi2O4|MgO|Pt photocathodes achieve the highest stable photocurrent densities of −200 μA cm−2 for over 3 hours with a Faradaic efficiency of ∼90%. Bias-free tandem water splitting was then performed by pairing this photocathode with a dye-sensitized TiO2 photoanode, producing H2 from neutral water without an external bias. This paper demonstrates key stability findings and proposes the use of spin-coated MgO, TiO2, and NiO as feasible earth-abundant protective materials to aid in the formation of a cheap and scalable tandem water splitting system. Charge transfer dynamics have also been probed by combining spectroelectrochemistry and in situ transient absorption spectroscopy.
Author(s): Burns C, Woodford O, Stephens SL, Rishan M, Fuller L, Kalathil S, Gibson EA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Dalton Transactions
Year: 2025
Volume: 54
Issue: 3
Pages: 920-933
Print publication date: 21/01/2025
Online publication date: 04/12/2024
Acceptance date: 25/11/2024
Date deposited: 18/12/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1477-9234
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
URL: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4DT02738H
DOI: 10.1039/D4DT02738H
Data Access Statement: The data supporting this article can be found within the manuscript and the ESI. Original data are available at data.ncl.ac.uk.
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