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):
http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA4MDEwNjAyOQ==&mid=401726954&idx=7&sn=941f0b7e906ecdb624b0e72049f1e826&scene=0#wechat_redirect