Described herein is the synthesis, characterization and photoelectrochemical behavior of a novel composite consisting of nanolayered manganese-calcium oxide (MCO) and mesoporous tungsten trioxide (WO₃). The samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results demonstrated that superior interfacial contacts had been formed between WO₃ and MCO. UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoelectrochemical characterization, and incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) revealed an enhanced light harvesting and effective electron-hole separation. A photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell composed of the n-type MCO/WO₃ as a photoanode and platinum sheet as a counter electrode was assembled to estimate the feasibility for overall water splitting under a solar simulator illumination. The photocatalytic hydrogen and oxygen production from the photochemical cell with optimized photocatalyst (MCO/WO₃-9) under 2 h simulated solar light irradiation was 1.9 μmol and 0.7 μmol, respectively, at low extra bias (0.90 V vs. RHE). Our investigation suggests that coupling MCO with n-type semiconductor WO₃ as photoanode is a promising method to improve the activity of overall water splitting to generate oxygen and hydrogen.

本文描述了由纳米层锰钙氧化物（MCO）和中孔三氧化钨（WO ₃）组成的新型复合材料的合成，表征和光电化学行为。样品通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）和X射线衍射（XRD）进行表征。结果表明，WO ₃和MCO之间已经形成了良好的界面接触。紫外可见漫反射光谱（DRS），光电化学特性和入射光子电流效率（IPCE）显示出增强的光收集和有效的电子-空穴分离。由n型MCO / WO ₃组成的光电化学（PEC）电池组装了作为阳极的铂和作为反电极的铂片，以评估在太阳模拟器照明下进行总水分解的可行性。在2 h模拟太阳光照射下，采用优化的光催化剂（MCO / WO ₃ -9）的光化学电池产生的光催化氢和氧的产生分别为1.9μmol和0.7μmol，且具有较低的额外偏压（相对于RHE为0.90 V）。我们的研究表明，将MCO与n型半导体WO ₃作为光阳极耦合是一种有前途的方法，可以提高总水分解产生氧气和氢气的活性。