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Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology

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01-10-2014 | Original Paper

Synthesis of ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell nanorods and their enhanced photoelectric performance

Authors: Keying Guo, Xuhuang Chen, Jianhua Han, Zhifeng Liu

Published in: Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

In this work, two kinds of ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell nanorods (NRs) have been successfully synthesized from ZnO NRs for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting by a versatile hydrothermal chemical conversion method (H-ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell NRs) and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method (S-ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell NRs), respectively. The photoelectrode is composed of a core/shell structure where the core portion is ZnO NRs and the shell portion is Cu₂S nanoparticles sequentially located on the surface. The ZnO NRs array provides a fast electron transport pathway due to its high electron mobility properties. The optical property of both two kinds of core/shell NRs was characterized, and enhanced absorption spectrum was discovered. Our PEC system produced very high photocurrent density and photoconversion efficiency under 1.5 AM irradiation for hydrogen generation. On the basis of a versatile chemical conversion process based on the ion-by-ion growth mechanism, H-ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell NRs exhibit a much higher photocatalytic activity than S-ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell NRs. The photocurrent density and photoconversion efficiency of H-ZnO/Cu₂S core/shell NRs are up to 20.12 mA cm⁻² at 0.85 V versus SCE and 12.81 % at 0.40 V versus SCE, respectively.

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Title: Synthesis of ZnO/Cu2S core/shell nanorods and their enhanced photoelectric performance
Authors: Keying Guo
Xuhuang Chen
Jianhua Han
Zhifeng Liu
Publication date: 01-10-2014
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology / Issue 1/2014
Print ISSN: 0928-0707
Electronic ISSN: 1573-4846
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-014-3426-1

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