高性能金属氮氧化物太阳能分解水光阳极材料的开发

Large-scale hydrogen production from solar water splitting is a promising means to realize clean and renewable solar energy recovery. However, practical solar water oxidation over photoanodes is challenging due to the inefficient photoactivity of the semiconductors and their poor compatibility with electrolyte during the photoelectrochemical or photocatalytic water oxidation reaction. Here, we demonstrate our recent efforts in fabricating high-performing ZnO-ZnGaON, Ta3N5 and BiVO4 photoanodes that reach 0.75%, 1.5% and 2% solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiencies, respectively. We highlight that effective surface modification strategies, including surface states passivation and buried p/n junction construction, can significantly suppress charge recombination at the photoanode/electrolyte (solid/liquid) interfaces and simultaneously increase the photo-corrosion resistance so as to realize active and durable solar water oxidation. Our findings point to new opportunities for development of efficient narrow-band-gap photoanodes toward practical solar-water-splitting operation.