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High performance and toxicity assessment of Ta3N5 nanotubes for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract

In this work, Co-based cocatalysts are electrodeposited on mesoporous Ta3N5 nanotubes. The electrodeposition time is varied and the optimized photoelectrode reaches a photocurrent density of 6.3 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs. SHE, under simulated solar illumination of 1 Sun, in 1 M NaOH. The best performing electrode, apart from the high photocurrent density, shows improved stability under intense photoelectrochemical water splitting conditions. The dual function of the cocatalyst to improve not only the photoelectrochemical performance, but also the stability, is highlighted. Moreover, we adopted a simple protocol to assess the toxicity of Co and Ta contained nanostructured materials (representing used photoelectrodes) employing the human cell line HeLa S3 as target cells.
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Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Kaiqi Xu
  • Athanasios Eleftherios Chatzitakis
  • Sanne Risbakk
  • Mingyi Yang
  • Paul Hoff Backe
  • Mathieu Grandcolas
  • Magnar Bjørås
  • Truls Eivind Norby

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Industry / Materials and Nanotechnology
  • University of Oslo
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  • Oslo University Hospital

Date

28.12.2019

Year

2019

Published in

Catalysis Today

ISSN

0920-5861

Volume

361

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository