Photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation with CdS/Ti-Si-O composite photoanode

CdS/TiO2 composite photoanode has attracted great attention due to its favorable electronic and optical properties. In this work, nanostructured Si-doped TiO2 photoanodes modified with CdS were fabricated through anodization of Ti-5Si alloy and depositing CdS by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process. The composition and morphology, optical properties and photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of the composite photoanodes were investigated. The CdS/600-TiSiO composite photoanode with donor density of 2.2 x 1019 cm-3 and flat-band potential of -0.215 V exhibited excellent PEC hydrogen generation properties with remarkable photocurrent density (7.86 mA cm-2 at 0 V vs Ag/AgCl), which was 19.15 times and 9.59 times to that of undoped TiO2 photoanode and Ti-Si-O photoanode, respectively. The joint employment of Si-doping and CdS deposition provided an effective method to prepare excellent photocatalysts for PEC hydrogen generation. (c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.