A new TiO2 nanorods/MoTe2 quantum dots/Al2O3 composite photocatalyst for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting under simulated sunlight

• Published in: Frontiers of materials science Vol. 18; no. 2
• Main Authors: Meng, Jie, Liu, Hongmei, Zhang, Sainan, Ye, Baogui, Feng, Min, Wang, Daoai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Higher Education Press 01.06.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Atomic layer epitaxy; Chemistry and Materials Science; Clean energy; Materials Science; Molybdenum compounds; Nanorods; Photocatalysis; Photocatalysts; Photoelectric effect; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum dots; Research Article; Solar cells; Sunlight; Tellurides; Titanium dioxide; Warm water; Water baths; Water splitting; atomic layer deposition; photoelectrochemistry; nanorod; MoTe; quantum dot; TiO; Al; O
• ISSN: 2095-025X; 2095-0268
• DOI: 10.1007/s11706-024-0686-8

The solar-to-hydrogen conversion using the photoelectrochemical (PEC) method is a practical approach to producing clean energy. However, it relies on the availability of photocatalyst materials. In this work, a novel photocatalyst comprising molybdenum telluride quantum dots (MoTe 2 QDs)-modified titanium dioxide nanorods (TiO 2 NRs) was prepared for the enhancement of the PEC water splitting performance after combination with a Al 2 O 3 layer using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. MoTe 2 QDs were initially prepared, and then they were loaded onto TiO 2 NRs using a warm water bath-based heating method. After a layer of Al 2 O 3 was deposited onto resulted TiO 2 NRs/MoTe 2 QDs, the composite TiO 2 NRs/MoTe 2 QDs/Al 2 O 3 was finally obtained. Under simulated sunlight (100 mW·cm −2 ), such a composite exhibited a maximum photocurrent density of 2.25 mA·cm −2 at 1.23 V (versus RHE) and an incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency of 69.88% at 380 nm, which are 4.33 and 6.66 times those of pure TiO 2 NRs, respectively. Therefore, the composite photocatalyst fabricated in this work may have promising application in the field of PEC water splitting, solar cells and other photocatalytic devices.