Quantum mechanics

Catalysis

Composite number

Engineering

Nanoparticle

Electrochemistry

Materials science

Water splitting

Carbon fibers

Chemical engineering

Electrocatalyst

Physical chemistry

Hydrogen

Physics

Nanotechnology

Tafel equation

Organic chemistry

Carbon nanotube

Composite material

Chemistry

Electrode

Electron

Photocatalysis

Hydrogen production

Overpotential

Photocathode

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

The development of photoelectrodes capable of light-driven hydrogen evolution from water with non-noble metals is an important approach for the storage of solar energy in the form of a chemical energy carrier. In this study, we report Co [email protected] carbon coated on carbon [email protected] ([email protected]@NC/D-SiO2), which are composed of Co [email protected] carbon as electrocatalyst, defective-silica as photocatalyst and carbon nanotube as conductive substrates. The obtained non-noble photocathode possesses the high performance for efficient photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction. When evaluated for hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysis, [email protected]@NC/D-SiO2 exhibits a small onset overpotential of 104 mV (J = 1 mA cm−2), a Tafel slope of 69.1 mV dec−1 and outstanding long-term cycling stability. The P type semiconductor characteristics of [email protected]@NC/D-SiO2 due to defective-silica with carrier concentration of 3.53 × 1019 cm−3 is measured, which produces a significant positive shift of overpotential of 40 mV (J = 10 mA cm−2) under 100 mW cm−2 simulated sunlight irradiation. These findings provide a straightforward and effective route to produce cheap and efficient photo-electro-catalyst for water splitting.

Co Nanoparticles@N-doped carbon coated on carbon Nanotube@Defective silica as non-noble photocathode for efficient photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation