UC San Diego

The discovery of a new viable renewable energy source is of significant importance for our generation. One approach scientists are addressing this problem is to use sun for solar power. There has been a lot of success in converting solar energy into electricity using solar panels. Now, scientists are trying to take it one step further and use this same idea to split water and make hydrogen. This process is called Photoelectrochemistry (PEC). PEC is more complicated as there are many more issues to address such as the electrolyte to solar panel interface, having sufficient bad-gap to split water, and the use of electrocatalysts to help aid in splitting water. This work here contributes to helping solve one of the problems, which is the development of an electrocatalyst to help photoanodic water splitting. These tests were done using electrodes with Nickel Oxide coated on them while running electrochemical tests to see their electrocatalyst performance. Here, we demonstrate that different preparation methods of a solution based Nickel Oxide precursor can affect its electrocatalytic performance, through potential shifting and current density increase, thereby enhancing its ability to aid in photoanodic water splitting