Spontaneous decoration of silicon surfaces with MoO x nanoparticles for the sunlight-assisted hydrogen evolution reaction

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 9; no. 5; pp. 1799 - 1804
• Main Authors: Truong, T-G, Mériadec, C, Fabre, B, Bergamini, J-F, de Sagazan, O, Ababou-Girard, S, Loget, G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 02.02.2017
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/C6NR08408G

The immersion of oxide-free Si surfaces in MoS aqueous solutions induces their spontaneous decoration with isolated MoO nanoparticles (NPs). The process is versatile and was used on planar Si (100) as well as on antireflective Si (111) micro-pyramid (SimPy) arrays. The NP decoration does not affect the optical properties of the surface in the visible range and improves the performance of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) under simulated sunlight. The simplicity and the scalability of the technique make it highly promising for the fabrication of catalytically active photoelectrodes. More specifically, the MoO -decorated SimPy produced H at a rate of 11 μmol cm min with a faradaic efficiency higher than 90% at -0.35 V vs. RHE. Furthermore, this process can be of great interest for other applications in high-performance electronic devices.