Plasmonic nickel nanoparticles decorated on to LaFeO3 photocathode for enhanced solar hydrogen generation

Plasmonic Ni nanoparticles were incorporated into LaFeO3 photocathode (LFO-Ni) to excite the surface plasmon resonances (SPR) for enhanced light harvesting for enhancing the photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen evolution reaction. The nanostructured LFO photo-cathode was prepared by spray pyrolysis method and Ni nanoparticles were incorporated on to the photocathode by spin coating technique. The LFO-Ni photocathode demonstrated strong optical absorption and higher current density where the untreated LFO film exhibited a maximum photocurrent of 0.036 mA/cm(2) at 0.6 V vs RHE, and when incorporating 2.84 mmol Ni nanoparticles the photocurrent density reached a maximum of 0.066 mA/cm(2) at 0.6 V vs RHE due to the SPR effect. This subsequently led to enhanced hydrogen production, where more than double (2.64 times) the amount of hydrogen was generated compared to the untreated LFO photocathode. Ni nanoparticles were modelled using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) analysis and the results showed optimal particle size in the range of 70-100 nm for Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) enhancement. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.