Improving solar water-splitting performance of LaTaON2 by bulk defect control and interface engineering

The solar photocurrent of LaTaON2 achieves 2.1 mA cm−2 at 1.6 VRHE, and this great enhancement is ascribed to increased bulk electrical conductivity, as well as a CoOx modification. The hybrid structure of nanoparticles and porous microparticle may not only largely block the back reaction on the conductive substrates, but may also reduce the transfer distance of the photoinduced holes to reaction sites for water oxidation. On the other hand, the CoOx nanospheres, recrystallizing from the as-deposited amorphous layer, facilitates the formation of the Schottky nano-junctions accelerating the hole transport.