Chemical-Bath-Deposited Indium Oxide Microcubes for Solar Water Splitting

Abstract

We fabricated films of cubic indium oxide (In2O3) by chemical bath deposition (CBD) for solar water splitting. The fabricated films were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman scattering, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, and the three-dimensional microstructure of the In2O3 cubes was elucidated. The CBD deposition time was varied, to study its effect on the growth of the In2O3 microcubes. The optimal deposition time was determined to be 24 h, and the corresponding film exhibited a photocurrent density of 0.55 mA cm-2. Finally, the film stability was tested by illuminating the films with light from an AM 1.5 filter with an intensity of 100 mW cm-2. What a performance! Films of cubic indium oxide are fabricated by chemical bath deposition for solar water splitting. The thickness of the In2O3 films can be tuned by varying the deposition time from 2 to 48 h to optimize their photoelectrochemical water-splitting performance.