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Photochemical deposition of cobalt-based oxygen evolving catalyst on a semiconductor photoanode for solar oxygen production

This study describes the photochemical deposition of Co-based oxygen evolution catalysts on a semiconductor photoanode for use in solar oxygen evolution. In the photodeposition process, electron-hole pairs are generated in a semiconductor upon illumination and the photogenerated holes are used to oxidize Co2+ ions to Co3+ ions, resulting in the precipitation of Co3+-based catalysts on the semiconductor surface. Both photodeposition of the catalyst and solar O2 evolution are photo-oxidation reactions using the photogenerated holes. Therefore, photodeposition provides an efficient way to couple oxygen evolution catalysts with photoanodes by naturally placing catalysts at the locations where the holes are most readily available for solar O2 evolution. In this study Co-based catalysts were photochemically deposited as 10–30 nm nanoparticles on the ZnO surface. The comparison of the photocurrent-voltage characteristics of the ZnO electrodes with and without the presence of the Co-based catalyst demonstrated that the catalyst generally enhanced the anodic photocurrent of the ZnO electrode with its effect more pronounced when the band bending is less significant. The presence of Co-based catalyst on the ZnO photoanode also shifted the onset potential of the photocurrent by 0.23 V to the negative direction, closer to the flat band potential. These results demonstrated that the cobalt-based catalyst can efficiently use the photogenerated holes in ZnO to enhance solar O2 evolution. The photodeposition method described in this study can be used as a general route to deposit the Co-based catalysts on any semiconductor electrode with a valence band edge located at a more positive potential than the oxidation potential of Co2+ ions.