Optimizing Height and Packing Density of Oriented One-Dimensional Photocatalysts for Efficient Water Photoelectrolysis

Abstract

Dependences of water-photoelectrolysis efficiency on heights and packing densities of vertically arrayed ZnO nanorods (NRs) and ZnO microrods (MRs) were systematically studied for the first time over a wide range of light incidence angles, under the direction of nanooptics simulation. In the photoelectrolysis, dense NRs of 1.8 µm in height afforded the highest photocatalytic efficiencies, and further increases of the height kept lowering down the photocatalytic efficiencies, while sparse MRs taller in height consistently afforded better electrolyte penetration and higher photocurrent densities especially at higher angles of incident light. The experimental results are in line with the nanooptics simulation. This new finding is generally applicable to advancing solar-energy conversions, optics, and optoelectronics using oriented one-dimensional micro/nanocrystallites. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1932-7447

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 American Chemical Society (ACS), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2013

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