In these present days where developing unconventional sources of energy is a major concern, sunlight-driven water splitting has attracted much attention due to sustainable hydrogen fuel production as a substitute of conventional energy. Although sunlight-driven water splitting is an eco-friendly and interminable energy source, extensive implementation is hindered by the expense of the essential photo anode.^1-2

In this contribution, we demonstrate an efficient and low-cost water-splitting cell by combining a charge carrier metal oxide semiconductor - processed multidimensional perovskite thin films photoanodes. Effort has been made to prepare nanostructured morphologies of metal oxide as well as perovskite photoanodes that possesses optimized surface catalytic reactions; as well as high photocurrent by controlling the morphology of the structure.^3-4This nanostructure material capable to overcome the shortcoming of the short hole diffusion length and enhancing photocurrent. The spectral absorbance of the materials have been also fine-tuned by controlling dimensionality of the structures as well as through doping. We optimized the necessary parameters for high performance photo electrochemical water splitting, by balancing photon absorption and charge carrier transport. A significant improvement in the state-of-the-art perovskite photo anodes through an enhancement in electron transport in films attained and these porous photoanodes films could be easily modified by metal doping for further enhanced photo electrochemical activity for solar water splitting.

This hybrid “modify perovskite nanostructures” composites is different from existing composites in that they (i) are produced using benign solvents and processing techniques, and (ii) possible to modify to introduce virtually any desired functionality tailored to the desired application. Our materials are much simpler to prepare and can easily be modified with virtually any desired functionality to optimize performance in different applications. Specific properties can also be dialled in by choosing the appropriate linking molecule (rigidity/flexibility, stimulus responsiveness, etc.). The flexibility of this approach leads to practically unlimited possibilities, while the technology is based on the most abundantly available in nature.

 References

1. Y. Kuang, Q. Jia, H. Nishiyama,T. Yamada, A. Kudo, K. Domen, Advanced Energy Materials, 2016, 6, 1501645-51. 
2. A. Kudo, K. Omori, H. Kato, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 1999, 121 11459-67. 
3. K. Sayama , A. Nomura , Z. Zou , R. Abe , Y. Abe , H. Arakawa , H. Arakawa , Chemical Communications, 2003 , 39 , 2908-2909. 
4. K. Kim, P. Thiyagarajan, H.-J. Ahn, S.-I. Kim and J.-H. Jang, Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 6254–6260