Electrochemical synthesis of 1D ZnO nanoarchitectures and their role in efficient photoelectrochemical splitting of water

Solution-based controlled morphological 1D ZnO nanorods (NRs) and nanotubes (NTs) were synthesized by a very simple and versatile electrodeposition method. The X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize phase, composition quality, and optical properties of synthesized ZnO NRs and NTs. Growth mechanism, morphological evolutions, structural intactness of ZnO NRs, NTs, and their subsequent use as photoanode for efficient photoelectrochemical splitting of water are discussed in detail. ZnO NTs exhibited markedly enhanced photocurrent density of 0.67 mA/cm(2) at 0.5 V vs SCE over NRs and also benefited from more negative flat band potential for hydrogen evolution.