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Using Magnetron Sputtering to Process TiO2-based Materials with
Improved Charge Separation for Solar-Driven Water Splitting
J. Holik1, R. Ding2, S. Li2, R. Liu3, S. Macartney4, L. R. Sheppard1e, D. Wang2, R.
Wuhrer5
1Solar Energy Technologies Research Group, School of Computing, Engineering and
Mathematics, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, 2751, Australia;
2School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales,
Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia
3SIMS Facility, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), University of
Western Sydney, Penrith, 2751, Australia
4School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, 2751,
Australia
5Advanced Materials Characterisation Facility, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(Research), University of Western Sydney, Penrith, 2751, Australia
e: [email protected]
In 1972, it was first demonstrated that water could be split into hydrogen and oxygen
gases by TiO2 under illumination with ultra-violet light. This discovery promised a
technology that would cleanly deliver hydrogen fuel and since it only required sunlight
and water as inputs, could reduce fossil fuel dependence and carbon emissions.
Unfortunately, the overall performance of TiO2 in this application is poor, but it
maintains promise due to its outstanding corrosion resistance and low cost.
Among the many efforts that have been made to improve the water splitting
performance of TiO2, band gap reduction via doping has been intensely investigated.
Despite successfully improving visible light sensitivity, these attempts have as yet not
yielded satisfactory efficiency gains. This failure is attributed to increased
recombination losses by incorporated dopants and highlights the need to be able to
simultaneously control both optical and charge transport properties during the
processing of TiO2-based materials for water splitting.
The present investigation is part of ongoing research that targets the imposition of
desired functional properties through the control of applied processing conditions.
Specifically, this work seeks to impose compositional gradients in TiO 2-based thin
films that are able to promote charge separation whilst also improving visible light
sensitivity.