SnO2 and F:SnO2 Inverse Opal Based Photoelectrochemcial Water Splitting

Nowadays, the exploration of new photoelectrode architectures to improve the light-harvesting and charge-collection properties of photoelectrochemical cells and related devices have been regarded as a challenging work. Here, we synthesized the inverse opal SnO₂ for photoelectrochemical water splitting by the spin-coating method exploring the polystyrene beads with a size of approximately 350 nm. The SnO₂ inverse opal structure shows the photonic crystal effect with a well-ordered hexagonal structure packing. Upon this film, the photoactive TiO₂ layer with various thicknesses from 10 nm to 40 nm was deposited by atomic layer deposition. Herein, it is expected that an optimal TiO₂ layer takes part in a role as a photoactive material. Adding to these results, the F doping on the SnO₂ inverse opal film was also examined with the TiO₂layers. These results were confirmed using Field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. Detail results and discussion would be presented.