Abstract
Amorphous molybdenum sulfide (a-MoSx) is a promising hydrogen evolution catalyst owing to its low cost and high activity. A simple electrodeposition method (cyclic voltammetry) allows uniform formation of a-MoSx films on conductive surfaces. However, the morphology of a-MoSx deposited on a TiO2/Sb2Se3 photocathode could be modulated by varying the starting potential. The cathodically initiated a-MoSx showed conformal filmlike morphology, whereas anodic initiation induced inhomogeneous particulate deposition. The filmlike morphology of a-MoSx was subjected to catalyst activation, which improved the photocurrent density and reduced the charge-transfer resistance at the semiconductor/electrolyte interface, as compared to that of its particulate counterpart. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that different chemical states of a-MoSx (photoelectrochemically active sites) were developed on the basis of the electrodeposited a-MoSx morphology. The research provides an effective approach for uniformly depositing cost-effective a-MoSx on nanostructured photoelectrodes, for photoelectrochemical water splitting.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 10898-10908 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 13 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 Apr 4 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP) (2012R1A3A2026417).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Chemical Society.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Materials Science(all)