Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation by Cobalt Cytochrome C Integrated-ATO Photoanode

Abstract

Here, we report the immobilization of Co-protoporphyrin IX (Co-PPIX) substituted cytochrome c (Co-cyt c) on Antimony-doped Tin Oxide (ATO) as a catalyst for photoelectrochemical oxidation of water. Under visible light irradiation (λ > 450 nm), the ATO-Co-cyt c photoanode displays ~6-fold enhancement in photocurrent density relative to ATO-Co-PPIX at 0.25 V vs. RHE at pH 5.0. The light-induced water oxidation activity of the system was demonstrated by detecting evolved stoichiometric oxygen by gas chromatography, and incident photon to current efficiency was measured as 4.1% at 450 nm. The faradaic efficiency for the generated oxygen was 97%, with a 671 turnover number (TON) for oxygen. The current density had a slow decay over the course of 6 h of constant irradiation and applied potential, which exhibits the robustness of catalyst-ATO interaction.