Hydrogen-treated semiconductor metal oxides for photoelectrical water splitting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9379422-B2
Application number	US-201313915487-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2013
Priority date	Jun 13, 2012
Publication date	Jun 28, 2016
Grant date	Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

A method of electrode hydrogenation for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation is provided that includes annealing a PEC electrode in air, and annealing the PEC electrode in hydrogen to form a hydrogenated-PEC electrode, where PEC performance is improved by enhancing charge transfer and transport in the hydrogenated-PEC electrode.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of enhancing photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance, comprising:
a. annealing a PEC electrode in air, wherein said PEC electrode comprises rutile TiO 2 , and a crystal metal oxide comprising crystalline WO 3 or crystalline BiVO 4 , wherein said air-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises a temperature in a range of 500 to 550° C.;
b. hydrogenating said PEC electrode by annealing said PEC electrode in hydrogen to form a hydrogenated-PEC electrode, wherein said hydrogen-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises a temperature in a range of 300 to 400° C.; and
c. introducing oxygen vacancies and hydrogen impurities to a PEC electrode, using said hydrogenation, wherein said hydrogenated PEC electrode comprises crystalline hydrogenated-WO 3 , or crystalline hydrogenated-BiVO 4 .

2. The method of electrode hydrogenation of claim 1 , wherein said hydrogenated PEC electrode comprises a photoanode.

3. The method of electrode hydrogenation of claim 1 , wherein said hydrogen-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises a hydrogen atmosphere having a purity of at least 99.99%.

4. The method of electrode hydrogenation of claim 1 , wherein said hydrogen-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises a hydrogen atmosphere having a pressure in a range of 500 to 760 milli-torr.

5. The method of electrode hydrogenation of claim 1 , wherein said air-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises an air atmosphere having a pressure of 760 mili-torr.

6. The method of electrode hydrogenation of claim 1 , wherein said hydrogen-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises annealing for a duration in a range of 10 min to 2 h.

7. The method of electrode hydrogenation of claim 1 , wherein said air-annealing of said PEC electrode comprises annealing for a duration in a range of 1 h to 3 h.

Assignees

• Univ California

Inventors

• Li Yat
• Wang Gongming

Classifications

• H10P95/90

  Thermal treatments, e.g. annealing or sintering · CPC title

• H10F77/20

  Electrodes · CPC title

• B05D3/0209

  Multistage baking · CPC title

• C25B1/003

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• H01L31/0224

  Electricity · mapped topic