Controlled Growth of WO₃-Loaded TiO₂ Nanotubes for Tandem Solar-Driven Water Splitting Cell

Abstract:

Nowadays, hydrogen production using solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has attracted considerable attention since the introduction of TiO₂ photoelectrodes. However, TiO₂ is not able to split water on its own because the cleavage requires more than 1.4 V or even up to 1.9 V, including the redox potential of water (1.23 V) and unavoidable over-potentials. Many semiconductors have been studied, but only a very few large band gap materials can generate enough photo-voltage to cleave water for a single photoelectrode PEC water splitting cell especially processing under solar illumination. In the present study, development of WO₃-loaded TiO₂ nanotubes (WTNT) is a possible solution to generate a voltage that is high enough to split the water while absorbing more light (photons) from a greater part of solar spectrum. Furthermore, WTNT offered several advantages over the pure TiO₂ photoelectrode, such as excellent chemical and thermal stability, active at room temperature as well as responsive to UV and visible illumination. The paper concludes by presenting the comparison results between unmodified TiO₂ and WTNT photoelectrode in term of morphology, phase, elemental analysis, electrical properties, and electrochemical properties for the tandem solar-driven water splitting cell.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 1109)
• Pages: 243-247
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1109.243
• Online since: June 2015
• Authors: Chin Wei Lai*, Kung Shiuh Lau, Sharifah Bee Abd Hamid
• Keywords: Hydrogen, Visible, Water Splitting, WO₃-loaded TiO₂, WTNT

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