TiO₂/ZnO core/shell nano-heterostructure arrays as photo-electrodes with enhanced visible light photoelectrochemical performance

Current progress in developing metal oxide nanoarrays-based photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting

“…The ZnO@TiO 2 core-shell nanowires based photoanode exhibited improved PEC performance even working in basic media. Similar improvements were also found in other reports [75,247,248]. Carbon coating is also an alternative strategy for building up a protective layer against photocorrosion [249].…”

Structural and electrical properties of TiO2/ZnO core–shell nanoparticles synthesized by hydrothermal method

“…The core-shell nanomaterial consists of an inorganic semiconductor matrix covered, generally, with a shell of other metal oxides [2]. TiO 2 /ZnO coreshell nanomaterial presents a high interest due to its potential applications, such as optoelectronic device [3,4], dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) [5], and photocatalysis [6][7][8]. Recently, TiO 2 /ZnO core-shell nanomaterial was used for photocatalytic H 2 production through water splitting [9].…”

ZnO Coated Anodic 1D TiO2 Nanotube Layers: Efficient Photo‐Electrochemical and Gas Sensing Heterojunction

“…Apart from the differences in conductivity and carrier recombination, it is also worth mentioning that ZnO and TiO 2 have close band gap energies (3.37 and 3.0–3.2 eV, respectively) . Since both materials complement in properties, many works have coupled ZnO and TiO 2 to form a new heterostructure, TiO 2 /ZnO or in a reverse manner, ZnO/TiO 2 structures …”

“…The advantages of ZnO–TiO 2 heterostructures include the suitable energy level alignment between ZnO and TiO 2 , suppression of unwanted electron‐hole recombination, shift in band gap energy, and hence extension of operational range in the visible spectral region . These effects have been efficiently utilized for high photocatalytic activities such as photodegradation of organic dyes and H 2 production .…”

“…There are numerous approaches to integrate ZnO within TiO 2 nanostructures, such as chemical bath deposition, dip‐coating, sputtering, hydrothermal, layer‐by‐layer assembly, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) . However, only ALD produces conformal and homogeneous deposition of a thin layer of material, with precise control of the coating thickness, according to the deposition cycles .…”