Producing hydrogen through solar water splitting requires the coverage of large land areas. Abundant metal-based molecular catalysts offer scalability, but only if they match noble metal activities. We report on a highly active p-GaInP₂ photocathode protected through a 35-nm TiO₂layer functionalized by a cobaloxime molecular catalyst (GaInP₂–TiO₂–cobaloxime). This photoelectrode mediates H₂ production with a current density of ~9 mA cm^-2 at a potential of 0 V versus RHE under 1-sun illumination at pH 13. The calculated turnover number for the catalyst during a 20-h period is 139,000, with an average turnover frequency of 1.9 s^-1. Bare GaInP₂ shows a rapid current decay, whereas the GaInP₂–TiO₂–cobaloxime electrode shows ≤5% loss over 20 min, comparable to a GaInP₂–TiO₂–Pt catalyst particle-modified interface. The activity and corrosion resistance of the GaInP₂–TiO₂–cobaloxime photocathode in basic solution is made possible by an atomic layer-deposited TiO₂ and an attached cobaloxime catalyst.

Nature Materials (2015) doi:10.1038/nmat4511

Received 22 June 2015 Accepted 02 November 2015 Published online 21 December 2015

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4511.html

中文报道链接（低成本光电化学制氢取得新进展）：
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