Solar Energy Conversion: Pt-doped Mesoporous Ceria as an Efficient Electro-photocatalyst for Hydrogen Production from Water Splitting

In terms of solar energy conversions, mesoporous materials disclose with significant advantages over charge separation phenomenon. In this study, we have explored the synthesis and characterization of mesoporous CeO2 for photoelectrochemical (PEC) investigations. We also examined the electronic band structure and density of states for modified CeO2 (as per lattice parameters of meso-CeO2), which was further compared with un-modified CeO2. Under this investigation, PEC studies showed the significant impact of visible light with enhancement in charge carrier of meso-CeO2 and Pt/Meso-CeO2 as compared to the dark conditions. Further, the current-potential measurement showed significant photocurrent difference in dark and light, in which Pt/meso-CeO2 displayed higher photocurrent difference than that of meso-CeO2. The negative value of V-fb and generated current suggest that meso-CeO2 and Pt/Meso-CeO2 could be used as n-type photocathode during PEC H-2 evolution reaction. Furthermore, a plausible inverse PEC mechanism for n-type photocathodes is described. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.