Attachment of difluoroborylcobaloxime catalysts to a polymer-brush-modified GaP semiconductor allows improved hydrogen production levels and photoelectrochemical performance under aqueous acidic conditions (pH = 4.5) as compared to the performance of electrodes without catalyst treatment. The catalytic assembly used in this work incorporates a boron difluoride (BF2) capping group on the glyoximate ligand of the catalyst, a synthetic modification previously used to enhance the stability of nonsurface-attached complexes toward acid hydrolysis and to shift the cobalt reduction potentials of the complex to less negative, and thus technologically more relevant, values. The pH-dependent photoresponses of the cobaloxime- and difluoroborylcobaloxime- modified semiconductors are shown to be consistent with those from analogous studies using non-surface-attached cobaloxime catalysts as well as catalysts supported on conductive electrodes. Thus, this work illustrates the potential to control and optimize the properties of visible-light-absorbing semiconductors using polymeric overcoating techniques coupled with the principles of synthetic molecular design.

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We report on the energetics and efficiency of a p-type (100) gallium phosphide (GaP) semiconductor functionalized with molecular hydrogen production catalysts via polymer grafting. The catalysts belong to the cobaloxime class of compounds that have recently shown promise in electrocatalysis and solar-to-fuel applications. Attachment of the complex to a semiconductor surface allows direct photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements of performance. Under simulated air mass 1.5 illumination, the catalyst-modified photocathode yields a 0.92 mA cm(-2) current density when operating at the equilibrium potential for the hydrogen production half reaction. The open circuit photovoltage (VOC) is 0.72 V vs. a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and the fill factor (FF) is 0.33 (a 258% increase compared to polymer-modified electrodes, without cobaloxime treatment). The external quantum efficiency (EQE), measured under a reverse bias of +0.17 vs. RHE, shows a maximum of 67% under 310 nm illumination. Product analysis of the head-space gas yields a lower limit on the Faradaic efficiency of 88%. In addition, the near linear photoresponse of the current density upon increasing illumination indicates that photocarrier transport to the interface can limit performance. These results give insights into the design of improved photocatalytic constructs with additional performance gains.