High Performance of Manganese Porphyrin Sensitized p-Type CuFe2O4 Photocathode for Solar Water Splitting to Produce Hydrogen in a Tandem Photoelectrochemical Cell

A novel composite composed of (5, 10, 15, 20-tetraphenyl) porphinato manganese sensitized p-type CuFe2O4 was developed for constructing the photocathode of a tandem photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. The prepared material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). Light-driven water splitting to produce hydrogen can be achieved through the PEC cell, and the results show that H-2 and O-2 can be collected separately at low applied bias. This work demonstrates that manganese porphyrin sensitized CuFe2O4 is an effective hybrid material for building the photocathode of a PEC cell for solar water splitting to produce H-2.