Abstract:
Earth-abundant photoelectrocatalyst with better photocatalytic activity and maximum stability
are in greater demand for realizing systematic sustainable and efficient photocatalytic water
splitting. Chalcogenides with suitable atomic arrangement and having high electronic
transport, show unique interesting catalytic properties in overall photoelectrochemical water
splitting. Here, a fabrication of multi-elements composition were proposed to develop
CoFe2S4/TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) heterojunction using anodization, followed by SILAR method
and then its sulfurization via CVD technique. The synthesized photocatalyst were
characterized using an X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), UV-Vis-Diffuse reflectance
spectroscopy (UV-Vis-DRS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and
Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Photoelectrochemical results determines that 15-
CoFe2S4/TiO2 NTs have excellent photocurrent density of 2.95 mAcm-2, as compared to pure
TiO2 NTs (0.78 mAcm-2), 05-CoFe2S4/TiO2 NTs (1.04 mAcm-2), 10-CoFe2S4/TiO2 NTs (1.75
mAcm-2), and 20-CoFe2S4/TiO2 NTs (2.30 mAcm-2) respectively at 0.3V vs Ag/AgCl (1.23V
vs RHE) using 100 mWcm-2 light intensity without UV-Vis light filter. The better
photocatalytic performance of 15-CoFe2S4/TiO2 NTs is because of the optimized loading of
CoFe2S4 over TiO2 NTs having proper atomic arrangement and morphology, which is thus
helpful in efficient charge separation and transportation with unique redox capability.
