Issue 11, 2016

Tantalum nitride films integrated with transparent conductive oxide substrates via atomic layer deposition for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract

Tantalum nitride, Ta3N5, is one of the most promising materials for solar energy driven water oxidation. One significant challenge of this material is the high temperature and long duration of ammonolysis previously required to synthesize it, which has so far prevented the use of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) substrates to be used which would allow sub-bandgap light to be transmitted to a photocathode. Here, we overcome this challenge by utilizing atomic layer deposition (ALD) to directly deposit tantalum oxynitride thin films, which can be fully converted to Ta3N5via ammonolysis at 750 °C for 30 minutes. This synthesis employs far more moderate conditions than previous reports of efficient Ta3N5 photoanodes. Further, we report the first ALD of Ta-doped TiO2 which we show is a viable TCO material that is stable under the relatively mild ammonolysis conditions employed. As a result, we report the first example of a Ta3N5 electrode deposited on a TCO substrate, and the photoelectrochemical behavior. These results open the door to achieve efficient overall water splitting using a Ta3N5 photoanode.

Graphical abstract: Tantalum nitride films integrated with transparent conductive oxide substrates via atomic layer deposition for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
13 May 2016
Accepted
01 Jul 2016
First published
05 Jul 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 6760-6767

Tantalum nitride films integrated with transparent conductive oxide substrates via atomic layer deposition for photoelectrochemical water splitting

H. Hajibabaei, O. Zandi and T. W. Hamann, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 6760 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC02116F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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