3D Branched ZnO Nanowire Arrays Decorated with Plasmonic Au Nanoparticles for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Zhang, Xing; Liu, Yang; Kang, Zhenhui

doi:10.1021/am500234v

Cited by 305 publications

(188 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency was increased to 0.18%, representing an improvement of 135% [125]. A tree-like three-dimensional (3D) nanowire structure based on patterned ZnO NAs was used as the photoanode, which lengthened the optical paths for light absorption and increased the surface areas for electrochemical reactions [126][127][128][129]. The fabrication process of 3D ZnO NAs-CdS is illustrated in Fig.…”

Section: (9(: Science China Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and tailoring of patterned ZnO nanostructures for energy conversion applications

Kang

Liao

et al. 2017

Sci. China Mater.

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ZnO is a typical direct wide-bandgap semiconductor material, which has various morphologies and unique physical and chemical properties, and is widely used in the fields of energy, information technology, biomedicine, and others. The precise design and controllable fabrication of nanostructures have gradually become important avenues to further enhancing the performance of ZnO-based functional nanodevices. This paper introduces the continuous development of patterning technologies, provides a comprehensive review of the optical lithography and laser interference lithography techniques for the controllable fabrication of ZnO nanostructures, and elaborates on the potential applications of such patterned ZnO nanostructures in solar energy, water splitting, light emission devices, and nanogenerators. Patterned ZnO nanostructures with highly controllable morphology and structure possess discrete three-dimensional space structure, enlarged surface area, and improved light capture ability, which realize the efficient carrier regulation, achieve highly efficient energy conversion, and meet the diverse requirements of functional nanodevices. The patterning techniques proposed for the precise design of ZnO nanostructures not only have important guiding significance for the controllable fabrication of complex nanostructures of other materials, but also open up a new route for the further development of functional nanostructures.

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Section: (9(: Science China Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and tailoring of patterned ZnO nanostructures for energy conversion applications

Kang

Liao

et al. 2017

Sci. China Mater.

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“…For instance, sandwiched ZnO@Au@Cu2O nanorod films were synthesized on steel mesh substrates via a simple three-step approach and showed an efficient visible-light photocatalytic performance for the degradation of the MO solution [142]. Those non-doped ZnO hierarchical composites could also be used in the field of H2 generation [118,122,[143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150]. Barpuzary et al [143] prepared urchin-like CdS@ZnO hetero-arrays via a template-based method.…”

Section: Photocatalytic Applications Of Hierarchical Zno Nanostructurmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on the Fabrication of Hierarchical ZnO Nanostructures for Photocatalysis Application

et al. 2016

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Semiconductor photocatalysis provides potential solutions for many energy and environmental-related issues. Recently, various semiconductors with hierarchical nanostructures have been fabricated to achieve efficient photocatalysts owing to their multiple advantages, such as high surface area, porous structures, as well as enhanced light harvesting. ZnO has been widely investigated and considered as the most promising alternative photocatalyst to TiO 2 . Herein, we present a review on the fabrication methods, growth mechanisms and photocatalytic applications of hierarchical ZnO nanostructures. Various synthetic strategies and growth mechanisms, including multistep sequential growth routes, template-based synthesis, template-free self-organization and precursor or self-templating strategies, are highlighted. In addition, the fabrication of multicomponent ZnO-based nanocomposites with hierarchical structures is also included. Finally, the application of hierarchical ZnO nanostructures and nanocomposites in typical photocatalytic reactions, such as pollutant degradation and H 2 evolution, is reviewed.

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“…33 Instead, as a strategy to simultaneously increase the light-capturing and the material stability, plasmonic nanostructures of noble metal especially gold (Au) have been demonstrated to be promising for photocatalytic and energy conversion due to its tunable interactions with light in visible and IR regions through localised surface-plasmon-resonance (SPR). 51 Compared with narrow-bandgap quantum dots or dyes, Au nanostructures exhibit considerably better photostability.…”

Section: Branched Nanostructures For Photoelectrochemical Water Splitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the compositions, sizes and shapes of the plasmonic metals and the coupling semiconductors) and the assembly of these blocks into targeted 3-D structures, Zhang and co-workers constructed a composite plasmonic metal/ semiconductor photoanode by decorating gold NPs on branched 3-D ZnO NW arrays through a series of simple-solution chemical routes ( Figure 23). 33 Through a set of linear sweep voltammetry of P-ZnO NWs (pristine ZnO NW arrays), B-ZnO NWs (branched ZnO NW arrays), Au/P-ZnO NWs (Au-NP-modified pristine ZnO NW arrays) and Au/B-ZnO NWs (Au-NP-modified branched ZnO NW arrays) as photoelectrodes under dark and simulated sunlight illumination, it can be seen that the dark scans from −0·1 to 1·4 V against RHE only exhibited a small background current density at μA cm -2 scale. Under simulated sunlight illumination, the current densities of all photoelectrodes promptly increased after the external potential exceeded the onset potential around 0·3 V against RHE.…”

Section: Branched Nanostructures For Photoelectrochemical Water Splitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Branched nanostructures for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Mao¹

2014

Nanomaterials and Energy

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IntroductionSunlight is a free, non-polluting and abundant renewable source of clean energy. The amount of solar energy that strikes the Earth yearly is ~10,000 times the total energy that is consumed on our planet. Converting solar energy into other easily usable forms has attracted considerable interest in the last several decades. Among different solar energy conversion technologies, photoelectrolysis has the ability to split water through solar energy to produce hydrogen (a chemical fuel) without any emission of by-products.1-6 The demonstration of metal oxides as photoanodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting was pioneered in 1972 by However, the conversion efficiency today remains unsatisfactory, even lower than that of photovoltaics (PVs), and is limited mainly by the low performance of PEC electrodes. An efficient PEC cell requires electrode materials that can provide rapid charge transfer at the electrode/electrolyte interface, long-term stability and efficient harvesting of a wide range of the solar spectrum, and that are low-cost and non-toxic as well. In the last several decades, however, no breakthroughs on PEC electrode materials have been achieved yet in either the material design of photoelectrode or material stability. 10With recent advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology, nanomaterials and their designs should be promising candidates for constructing photoelectrodes because of their extremely small feature size, large surface area, large surface-to-volume ratio and short diffusion length for carrier transport. 1,3,7,10 It is believed that nanostructured materials can provide beneficial effects including quantum dot sensitisation, band structural modification, the domination of crystal facets and plasmonic association. Therefore, to develop better photoelectrodes and more efficient PEC and PV devices, one of the main strategies is nanostructuring by exploiting scaling laws and specific effects at the nanoscale to enhance the efficiency of existing semiconductors and metal oxides. As a result, there has been intensive research directed worldwide by taking advantages of nanomaterials to make PEC devices with higher solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency.It is well known that specific surface area, defined by surface-tovolume ratio, depends on feature size and geometry. The surface-tovolume ratio is, to a first-order approximation, inversely proportional to the feature size as 1/r.11 Highly symmetric objects, such as spheres, have low specific surface area. With equal volume, a rod has a larger surface-to-volume ratio than a spherical particle, and

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3D Branched ZnO Nanowire Arrays Decorated with Plasmonic Au Nanoparticles for High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Cited by 305 publications

References 49 publications

Design and tailoring of patterned ZnO nanostructures for energy conversion applications

Design and tailoring of patterned ZnO nanostructures for energy conversion applications

A Review on the Fabrication of Hierarchical ZnO Nanostructures for Photocatalysis Application

Branched nanostructures for photoelectrochemical water splitting

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