Photoelectrochemical
water splitting based on suitable catalysts
has attracted wide attention as a promising strategy to utilize solar
energy to produce clean and renewable hydrogen fuel. Herein, we reported
cobalt phosphate-modified (GaN)1–x
(ZnO)
x
/GaN nanowire arrays on a high-temperature
conductive GaN substrate toward enhanced photoelectrochemical water
splitting by a facile two-step Au-assisted chemical vapor deposition
method. The highly conductive Si-doped GaN substrate is designed to
serve as a current collector and epitaxial substrate to grow GaN nanowires
at high temperature. Meanwhile, high density of branched (GaN)1–x
(ZnO)
x
nanowires with a tunable band gap, strong visible-light absorption,
and high catalytic activity is deposited on the surface of GaN nanowires
to act as active components to harvest light toward the oxygen evolution
reaction. Such multi-junction heterostructures effectively enhance
wide spectral utilization and light absorption and simultaneously
accelerate the separation of electrons and holes and the transfer
of photogenerated electrons from (GaN)1–x
(ZnO)
x
nanowires to the GaN substrate
collector and Pt electrode. The photocurrent density of the (GaN)1–x
(ZnO)
x
/GaN nanowire array photoanode can reach 37.5 μA cm–2 at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode and could be further
enhanced to 186 μA cm–2 by modifying the cobalt
phosphate cocatalyst, showing promising potential in clean hydrogen
production.