Gold-Promoted Electrodeposition of Metal Sulfides on Silicon Nanowire Photocathodes To Enhance Solar-Driven Hydrogen Evolution

Constructing composite structures is the key to breaking the dilemma of slow reaction kinetics and easy oxidation on the surface of lightly doped p-type silicon nanowire (SiNW) array photocathodes. Electrodeposition is a convenient and fast technique to prepare composite photocathodes. However, the low conductivity of SiNWs limits the application of the electrodeposition technique in constructing composite structures. Herein, SiNWs were loaded with Au nanoparticles by chemical deposition to decrease the interfacial charge transfer resistance and increase active sites for the electrodeposition. Subsequently, co-catalysts CoS, MoS2, and Ni3S2 with excellent hydrogen evolution activity were successfully composited by electrodeposition on the surface of SiNWs/Au. The obtained core-shell structures exhibited excellent photo electrochemical hydrogen evolution activity, which was contributed by the plasma property of Au and the abundant hydrogen evolution active sites of the co-catalysts. This work provided a simple and efficient solution for the preparation of lightly doped SiNW-based composite structures by electrodeposition.