• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.113-117
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• 2016

Recently, hydrogen is regarded as important energy in the future, because it is clean and renewable. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) system, which produce hydrogen using water splitting by solar energy, is one of the most promising energy systems because it has abundant energy sources and good theoretical efficiency. GaN has recently been regarded as suitable photoelectrode that could be used to split water to generate hydrogen without extra bias because its band edge position include water redox potential ($V_{redox}=1.23$ vs. SHE). GaN also shows considerable corrosion resistance in aqueous solutions and it is possible to control its properties, such as structure, band gap, and catalyst characteristics, in order to improve solar energy conversion efficiency. But, even if the band edge position of GaN make PEC reaction facilitate without bias, the overpotential of oxygen evolution reaction could reduce the efficiency of system. One of the ways to decrease overpotential is introduction of co-catalyst on photoelectrode. In this paper, we will investigate the effect of manganese dioxide ($MnO_2$) as a co-catalyst. $MnO_2$ particles were dispersed on GaN photoelectrode by spincoater and analyzed properties of the PEC system using potentiostat (PARSTAT4000). After coating $MnO_2$, the flat-band potential ($V_{fb}$) and the onset voltage ($V_{onset}$) were moved negatively by 0.195 V and 0.116 V, respectively. The photocurrent density increased on $MnO_2$ coated sample and time dependence was also improved. These results showed $MnO_2$ has an effect as a co-catalyst and it would enhance the efficiency of overall PEC system.