Flame Synthesized Nanostructured WO3 Thin Films for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

摘要

Tungsten oxide has been considered as a promising photoanode material for photoelectrochemcial watersplitting techonologies. In our study, we prepared nanostrutured tungsten oxide thin films with different morphologies, such as granular, co-tube and flower-like structures, by aerosol flame deposition process. Thin film morphology were controlled by adjusting various process parameters, such as tungsten wire feed rate and various gas flow rates and so on. With higher tungsten wire feed rate, nucleation process of tungsten oxide vapor has higher tendency to take place in the flame before depositing on the subtrate, which led to granular morphology of thin film formed. We first presented an approach to prepare doublelayer nanostructured WO3 thin film bloomed flower structure by a rapid single flame deposition process. This may provide a way to increase thin film total surface area, and facilitate charge transport of thin film photoelectrode in photoelectrochemical water splitting.