Flexible Heteroepitaxy Photoelectrode for Photo-electrochemical Water Splitting

MICAtronics represents a new research direction by taking the advantages of good mechanical flexibility and optical transparency of muscovite mica, leading to a new platform to use oxide heteroepitaxy for novel transparent soft technology. Here we report a model flexible photoelectrode for photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting based on Fe2O3/ZnO/mica heteroepitaxy. The heteroepitaxy was confirmed by a combination of X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The PEC performance of this flexible and semitransparent photoelectrode under various bending states was investigated. We found that the photocurrent of the heteroepitaxial system was enhanced by three times relative to pure ZnO and Fe2O3 under visible-light irradiation, and the heteroepitaxial photoelectrodes retain their photocurrent after continuous bending in cycling (>3000 cycles) with a smallest bending radius of 3.5 mm. The energy band alignment and charge dynamics under light excitation were characterized to understand the mechanism of the enhanced PEC performance. This study provides a new platform for design and fabrication of a flexible transparent photoelectrode in the harvest of solar energy based on oxide heteroepitaxy.