Facile and Scalable Synthesis of 鈥淐aterpillar-like鈥?ZnO Nanostructures with Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water-Splitting Effect
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- 作者：Qiang Li ; Xing Sun ; Karen Lozano ; Yuanbing Mao
- 刊名：Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- 出版年：2014
- 出版时间：June 26, 2014
- 年：2014
- 卷：118
- 期：25
- 页码：13467-13475
- 全文大小：555K
- ISSN：1932-7455
文摘
In an effort to replace conventional multistep seeding methods to produce multidimensional ZnO nanostructures with high spatial occupancy of nanowires (NWs), a rational and facile synthesis protocol for 鈥渃aterpillar-like鈥?branched ZnO nanofibers (BZNs) is reported. This process combined the scalable forcespinning technology with a hydrothermal process to efficiently develop BZNs to substantially enhance surface area and roughness factor. Specifically, unbranched ZnO nanofibers were first prepared by spinning polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/zinc nitrate hexahydrate (Zn(NO3)2路6H2O) composite fibers, followed by calcination at 500 掳C. These fibers were deposited on flat substrates to serve as nonwoven netlike seed sites for hydrothermal growth of ultradense and uniform NW branches to form 鈥渃aterpillar-like鈥?BZNs. Their usage as photoanodes in photoelectrochemical water-splitting cells was evaluated, resulting in a photon-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 0.165%, an enhancement of 147% when compared to ZnO NW arrays with similar dimensions. An enhanced light-harvesting process coupled with a facile and scalable synthetic procedure is presented.