Thermal treatment of polyvinyl alcohol for coupling MoS2 and TiO2 nanotube arrays toward enhancing photoelectrochemical water splitting performance

Abstract

Solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, using semiconductor photo-electrodes, is considered a promising renewable energy source and solution for environmental sustainability. Herein, we report polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a binder material for combining MoS2 and TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNAs) to improve PEC water splitting ability. By a thermal treatment process, the formation of the π conjunction in the PVA structure enhanced the PEC performance of MoS2 /TNAs, exhibiting linear sweeps in an anodic direction with the current density over 65 µA/cm2 at 0 V vs. Ag/AgCl. Besides, the photoresponse ability of MoS2 /TNAs is approximately 6-fold more significant than that of individual TNAs. Moreover, a Tafel slope of 140.6 mV/decade has been obtained for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of MoS2 /TNAs materials. © 2021 by the authLicensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerla