Robust Protection of III–V Nanowires in Water Splitting by a Thin Compact TiO<sub>2</sub> Layer
Fan Cui, Yunyan Zhang, H. Aruni Fonseka, Premrudee Promdet, Ali Imran Channa, Mingqing Wang, Xueming Xia, Sanjayan Sathasivam, Hezhuang Liu, Ivan P. Parkin, Hui Yang, Ting Li, Kwang‐Leong Choy, Jiang Wu, Christopher S. Blackman, Ana M. Sánchez, Huiyun Liu
Abstract
layer is pinhole-free. Working as a photocathode for water splitting, they exhibited a 45% larger photocurrent density compared with unprotected counterparts and a high Faraday efficiency of 91% and can also maintain a record-long highly stable performance among narrow-band-gap III-V NW photoelectrodes; after 67 h photoelectrochemical stability test reaction in a strong acid electrolyte solution (pH = 1), they show no apparent indication of corrosion, which is in stark contrast to the unprotected NWs that fully failed after 35 h. These findings provide an effective way to enhance both stability and performance of III-V NW-based photoelectrodes, which are highly important for practical applications in solar-energy-based water-splitting systems.