Photo-electrocatalytic performance of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/TiO2 nano-tree films deposited by oCVD/CVD for H2 production

Amr Nada (1, 2, 3) , Maged Bekheet (4) , Diane Samélor (5) , Hugues Vergnes (2) , Christina Villeneuve-Faure (6) , Jim Cartier (1) , Christophe Charmette (1) , Sophie Tingry (1) , Brigitte Caussat (2) , Constantin Vahlas (5) , Stéphanie Roualdès (1)

1 IEM - Institut Européen des membranes
2 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique
3 IPSL (FR_636) - Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace
4 TU - Technical University of Berlin / Technische Universität Berlin
5 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
6 LAPLACE-DSF - Diélectriques Solides et Fiabilité

The hydrogen production from photo-electrocatalytic water splitting attracts extensive attention as a direct way to convert solar energy into chemical fuels. In this work, innovative photo-anodes composed of TiO2 which has a preferable growth orientation [2 1 1] conjugated with PEDOT as bi-layers are prepared by a dry process strategy, combining oxidative and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Pure anatase, dendritic TiO2 films of variable thickness are obtained at 500 °C by varying the deposition time. Increase of films thickness from 474 to 2133 nm results in morphologies that evolve from dense and angular structures to isolated and nanostructured tree-like columns with a concomitant decrease of the charge transfer resistance due to the enhancement of active facets of anatase structure. The PEDOT/TiO2 bi-layer with an overall thickness of 1350 nm and a 50 nm thick upper-PEDOT layer exhibits the highest photocurrent response (0.26 mA cm−2 at 1.8 V/RHE), a fast photocurrent response under illumination, and the best hydrogen yield up to 4.1 µmol cm-2h−1 with electronic conductivity being three order of magnitude higher than pristine TiO2

Mots clés: CVD PEDOT TiO 2 photo-anode water splitting [211] anatase facet; CVD; PEDOT; TiO 2; photo-anode; water splitting; [211] anatase facet

Domaines: Matériaux

Amr Nada, Maged Bekheet, Diane Samélor, Hugues Vergnes, Christina Villeneuve-Faure, et al.. Photo-electrocatalytic performance of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/TiO2 nano-tree films deposited by oCVD/CVD for H2 production. Applied Surface Science, 2023, 637, pp.157919. ⟨10.1016/j.apsusc.2023.157919⟩. ⟨hal-04496534⟩