Visible light responsive photocatalysts utilizing nitride semiconductor-based nanostructures for artificial photosynthesis

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13937
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Electronic materials/Electric materials
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Taketomo Sato 北海道大学, 量子集積エレクトロニクス研究センター, 准教授 (50343009)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 橋詰 保 北海道大学, 量子集積エレクトロニクス研究センター, 教授 (80149898) ; 本久 順一 北海道大学, 情報科学研究科, 教授 (60212263)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 窒化ガリウム / 光電気化学 / 多孔質構造 / エネルギー変換

Outline of Final Research Achievements

GaN-based photocatalyst electrodes utilizing electrochemically-formed porous structures have been developed. The precise control of pore diameter and depth has been achieved by optimizing the condition of electrochemical etching and subsequent wet-chemical etching. The decrease of photo reflectance and increase of the effective surface area of GaN porous structures lead to the improvement of the photo-electrochemical conversion efficiency. The functionalization utilizing NiO and Cu2O on n-GaN electrodes was very effective respectively for the improvement of corrosion resistance and the photoelectrochemical conversion in visible light region (400-600nm).

Free Research Field

電気電子工学