Photoelectrochemical salt water splitting using ternary silver-tin-selenide photoelectrodes

Kong Wei Cheng*, Yu Hsiang Wu, Ting Hsuan Chiu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ternary AgSnSe2 and Ag8SnSe6 semiconductor photoelectrodes are prepared on various substrates via the selenization of thermally evaporation of silver-tin metal precursors. The structural, optical and electrical properties of ternary AgSnSe2 and Ag8SnSe6 samples are investigated as a function of the [Ag]/[Ag + Sn] molar ratio in the metal precursors. X-ray diffraction patterns of samples show that the phases of samples change from cubic AgSnSe2 to cubic Ag8SnSe6 phase at a selenization temperature of 410 °C when the molar ratio of [Ag]/[Ag + Sn] in silver-tin metal precursors increase from 0.51 to 0.68. The images obtained from a field-emission scanning electron microscopy show that the surface microstructures of samples change from plate-like microstructures with some pinholes to polygonal microstructures with increasing [Ag]/[Ag + Sn] molar ratios in samples. The energy bang gaps, carrier concentrations and mobilities of the samples are in the ranges of 0.86-1.19 eV, 1.27 × 1011-2.39 × 1012 cm-3 and 238-655 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. The highest photo-enhanced current densities of the samples in aqueous Na2S + K2SO3 and NaCl solutions are 3.34 and 0.61 mA cm-2 at an applied voltage of 0 and + 0.4 V vs. an Ag/AgCl electrode under 100 mW cm-2 light illumination from a Xe lamp source, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)329-339
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Power Sources
Volume307
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 03 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Crown Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Photoelectrode
  • Saltwater splitting
  • Thermal evaporation
  • Thin film

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