ZnO/CuO/M (M = Ag, Au) Hierarchical Nanostructure by Successive Photoreduction Process for Solar Hydrogen Generation
1
Applied Nano and Thermal Science Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, 55 Hanyangdaehak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan Gyeonggi-do 15588, Korea
3
Novel Applied Nano Optics (NANO) Lab, Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Bukgu, Daegu 41566, Korea
4
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ajou University, 206 Worldcupro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon 16499, Korea
5
Department of Mechanical Engineering/Institute of Advanced Machinery and Design (SNU-IAMD), Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
β
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Nanomaterials 2018, 8(5), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8050323
Received: 17 March 2018 / Revised: 10 May 2018 / Accepted: 10 May 2018 / Published: 12 May 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy)
To date, solar energy generation devices have been widely studied to meet a clean and sustainable energy source. Among them, water splitting photoelectrochemical cell is regarded as a promising energy generation way for splitting water molecules and generating hydrogen by sunlight. While many nanostructured metal oxides are considered as a candidate, most of them have an improper bandgap structure lowering energy transition efficiency. Herein, we introduce a novel wet-based, successive photoreduction process that can improve charge transfer efficiency by surface plasmon effect for a solar-driven water splitting device. The proposed process enables to fabricate ZnO/CuO/Ag or ZnO/CuO/Au hierarchical nanostructure, having an enhanced electrical, optical, photoelectrochemical property. The fabricated hierarchical nanostructures are demonstrated as a photocathode in the photoelectrochemical cell and characterized by using various analytic tools.
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Keywords:
hierarchical nanostructure; photochemical; solar water splitting; photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell; surface plasmon
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kwon, J.; Cho, H.; Jung, J.; Lee, H.; Hong, S.; Yeo, J.; Han, S.; Ko, S.H. ZnO/CuO/M (M = Ag, Au) Hierarchical Nanostructure by Successive Photoreduction Process for Solar Hydrogen Generation. Nanomaterials 2018, 8, 323.
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