Facile preparation of one dimension ZnO/chalcogenide semiconductor heterostructure for efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

We develop a novel ion exchange method to prepare ZnO/ZnS, ZnO/CdS and ZnO/Ag2S heterogeneous nanorod (NR) arrays on F-doped SnO2 glass. The chalcogenides semiconductors (ZnS, CdS and Ag2S) form the shell of the ZnO NRs on the ZnO NR arrays by the ion exchange, and the obtained samples maintained the well-ordered regular hexagonal morphology of the ZnO NRs. The photoelectric currents and photocatalytic water oxidation properties of these heterostructures were investigated in detail under simulated sunlight (AM1.5) in comparison with fresh ZnO NRs. In addition, theoretical analysis of the photoelectric effect is preliminarily explored on the basis the flat band potential results.