A two-step approach towards solar-driven water splitting

作者：Yi Zhiguo^*; Withers Ray L; Liu Yun

来源：Electrochemistry Communications, 2011, 13(1): 28-30.

DOI：10.1016/j.elecom.2010.11.004

• Water splitting
• Electrolysis
• Photochemistry
• Hydrogen energy

The search for an energy efficient means of utilizing sunlight to carry out solar-driven water splitting continues to be a subject of intense investigation. In a recent publication (Z. G. Yi et al., Nature Mater. 9(2010), 559-564), a simple Ag(3)PO(4) semiconductor material was shown to possess strong photo-oxidative properties under visible-light irradiation. Here we report a novel two-step approach that enables energy-efficient, solar-driven water splitting at room temperature in the presence of powdered silver orthophosphate. The approach proposed avoids the use of a low-efficiency, thin-film photo-electrode and turns the instability of the silver orthophosphate semiconductor material into an advantage.

• 出版日期2011-1