Study of electroerosive Ga2O3-ZnO nanostructures as photoanodes for photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation

Ga2O3-ZnO nanostructures have attracted interest because of their potential use in hydrogen generation. The present work is a study of Ga2O3-ZnO nanostructures produced by electroerosion. These nanostructures were prepared in a reactor where zinc granules were dispersed in a solution of hydrogen peroxide by electrical discharges with addition of Ga2O3 powder. According to the XRD analysis, the products contain the phases of (3- Ga 2 O 3 and ZnO. TEM observations showed that the products represented heterostructures where ZnO nano- particles were adhered to Ga2O3 nanoparticles. FTIR measurements demonstrated that the nanostructures synthesized in less concentrated H2O2 solutions revealed peaks characteristic for the initial Ga2O3. UV-Vis spectroscopy observations showed the band alignment of nanostructures GZO-L and GZO-S with Eg = 3.3 and 2.4 eV, respectively. CV measurements showed that the current density induced in the cell with GZO-2Ldecorated working electrode was higher by 2.072 mA/cm2 for the light experiment in comparison with the dark conditions.