Research On New Catalyst And Device Of Water Splitting

More and more attention has been payed on water splitting for the problems with resources and environment.In the 1970s,Japanese scientists Fujishima and K.Honda found accidentally that the TiO₂ single crystal electrode could split water into hydrogen and oxygen under voltage and light radiation,attracting much interest of scholars.In water splitting experiment,the photoelectrode is an essential part whose photoelectric response efficiency can affect the hydrogen production efficiency heavily.Recent research showed that metallic oxide semiconductor photocatalysis like TiO₂,is a kind of green material that can be widely used in water splitting.Additionally,PZT ferroelectric material that appeared in recent years has been used in wireless storage device,pressure sensor,pyroelectric infrared detector and DRAM semiconductor memory device,which has special perovskite structure,good ferroelectric,dielectric,piezoelectric,pyroelectric and photoelectric effect.Moreover,PZT also has good advantages in water splitting.Based on the above two kinds of photocatalytic water splitting catalysts,the main contents of this paper are as follows:?1?A kind of photoelectrode loaded with TiO₂ nanostructure by hydrothermal method was introduced.The morphology,structure,physical properties as well as the relationship between them were studied by SEM and volt-ampere.Since the substrate is nickel foam,the porous structure with poor surface roughness has a great impact on the loading of materials,resulting in bad performance on photoelectric response for the photoelectrode with low catalyst adhesion.At the same time,another attempt was made to prepare Fe₂O₃photoelectrode by electrochemical deposition.The sample was characterized and tested,and the result showed that the photocurrent of the tough electrode was limited owing to the impure product.?2?In the experiment,FTO was used to prepare a kind of photoelectrode covered by PZT thin films by sol-gel method,and then the photoelectrode was modified with Au.The valence band and conduct band of the hybrid material were regulated based on energy band theory.The modified photoelectrode showed a broader range of light absorption and the migration and separation of photogenerated carries were promoted.Furthermore,the photoelectrode with compact structure had stable performance and worked well in hydrogen production.