Modulating light absorption and charge recombination in photoelectrochemical water oxidation with spin-coated MoS2 co-catalyst on ZnO nanorods

Ananta R. Fareza, Liszulfah Roza, Ferry Anggoro Ardy Nugroho, Vivi Fauzia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on a photoanode is until today considered a major challenge. In the case of ZnO, one of the most investigated semiconductors, the limitation is due to its low visible light absorption and severe charge recombination. Combining ZnO with catalytically active 2D materials such as MoS2 has been proven to increase its water oxidation performance, but they are still often produced using complex methods. Here, we present a simple and low-cost method of spin-coating to fabricate ZnO nanorods/MoS2 nanosheets (ZRM) heterostructures for OER photoanode. Using this method, we successfully produce heterostructures with improved performance, that is, measured photocurrent density (Jph) of 0.61 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE, about threefold than that of pure ZnO, with excellent photostability, which is on par with similar heterostructures synthesized using more complex methods. Beyond benchmarking the performance, we also unravel the mechanism by which MoS2 improves the water oxidation process, that is, through the efficient light-harvesting (ηLHE), charge separation (ηsep), and charge injection (ηinj). Our findings provide a straightforward route to produce metal oxide/2D materials heterostructure-based photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102663
JournalSurfaces and Interfaces
Volume37
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2023

Keywords

  • binary heterostructures
  • green hydrogen
  • oxygen evolution reaction
  • photoelectrochemical water splitting
  • water oxidation
  • ZnO/MoS

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