Development and characterisation of photoelectrochemical MIS structures with RuO₂/TiO₂ gate stacs for water oxidation

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to preparation and analysis of metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) photoanode with a metal organic chemical vapor deposited RuO2 layer and TiO2 protection layer for photoelectrochemical water splitting. It is shown that utilization of TiO2 layers of 2, 4, and 6 nm thickness preserve the catalytic activity of underlying RuO2. The origin of increased overpotential and decreased photovoltage of the photoanode upon the increase of TiO2 layer thickness is discussed in the paper. Results revealed that utilization of TiO2 layer in the MIS concept is suitable for photoelectrochemical water oxidation applications.