Improvement of Photoelectrochemical Properties of WO3 Photoelectrode Fabricated by Using H2O2 Additive

Abstract

In this study, we deposited a WO3 thin-film photoelectrode on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate using a spin-coating method, and we investigated the photocurrent density and dark current density of the WO3 photoelectrode with various amounts of H2O2 additive. The morphological, structural, optical, electrical and photoelectrochemical properties of the WO3 photoelectrode with various amounts of H2O2 additive were analyzed using FE-SEM, XRD, UV-vis spectroscopy, EIS and a three-electrode potentiostat/galvanostat system, respectively. The amount of H2O2 additive has a large influence on the thickness of the WO3 photoelectrode, XRD (100) peak intensity, light absorption, optical energy bandgap, flat-band potential, donor density value, etc., and thus has a large influence on photoelectrochemical properties. Specifically, the H2O2 additive had a large influence on the growth of the WO3 photoelectrode, and the photocurrent density and dark current density characteristics of the WO3 photoelectrode grown to a uniform and thick thickness were largely improved. As a result, the WO3 photoelectrode fabricated with 0.2 mL of added H2O2 exhibited a high photocurrent density value of 1.17 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>, which was about 23 times higher than that of the WO3 photoelectrode fabricated without H2O2 additive, and had a dark current density value of a low 0.04 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>, which was a reduction of about 87%.

Improvement of Photoelectrochemical Properties of CuO Photoelectrode by Li Doping

“…현재 CuO [3,4], Fe 2 O 3 [5][6][7], TiO 2 [8], BiVO 4 [9], WO 3 [10][11] 등의 산화물 반도체를 이용한 PEC 광전극 연구가 많이 진행되고 있다. 그 중 CuO 물질은 가시광선 흡수에 적합한 밴드갭을 가지며 광전도도가 우수하며 [12,13], 독성이 없기 때문에 환경 친화적이며 많은 양이 매장되어 있어 가격이 저렴하다는 장점을 가지고 있다 [13,14].…”