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A novel IrO 2 anode on titanium substrate with iridium-titanium oxide interlayer (Ti/IrO x -TiO 2 /IrO 2 ) was prepared and investigated for oxygen evolution. IrO x -TiO 2 interlayer was coated on titanium substrate by impregnation-thermal decomposition method from a mixture of TiN nanoparticles and H 2 IrCl 6 solution at 500°C. The results showed that the service life of Ti/IrO x -TiO 2 /IrO 2 was a factor of six times longer than that of Ti/IrO 2 , which was attributed to the IrO x -TiO 2 interlayer, it could form a metastable solid solution between IrO x and thin titanium oxide layer on titanium substrate during calcination. The interlayer contributed to the decrease in migration rate of oxygen atom or molecule toward substrate and the increase in bonding force among IrO 2 layer, interlayer, and substrate. Therefore, besides keeping high electrocatalytic activity, the service life of Ti/IrO x -TiO 2 /IrO 2 electrode was greatly improved, and its overall electrocatalytic performance for oxygen evolution was increased as well.

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In 2 O 3 quantum dots with a high crystallinity were deposited on the surface of ZnO nanorods through a chemistry bath method. The resulting In 2 O 3 -sensitizing ZnO nanorod arrays not only exhibited enhanced photoelectrochemical activity for water splitting under visible-light irradiation, but also possessed anti-photocorrosion property. The photo-induced charge-transfer property of In 2 O 3 could be improved greatly by coupling with ZnO. This observation demonstrated that the heterojunction at the interface between In 2 O 3 and ZnO could efficiently reduce the recombination of photo-induced electronhole pairs and increase the lifetime of charge carriers and therefore enhance the photo-to-current efficiency of the In 2 O 3 -ZnO nanocrystalline arrays. It reveals that the heterojunction construction between two different semiconductors plays a very important role in determining the dynamic properties of their photogenerated charge carriers and their photo-to-current conversion efficiency.Keywords In 2 O 3 quantum dots Á Photoelectrochemical water splitting Á ZnO nanorod array Á Thin-film photoanode