Abstract
Harnessing solar energy for clean and sustainable fuel production by photoelectrochemical water oxidation over different timescales has been extensively investigated. However, the light-driven photoelectrochemical water oxidation reaction for artificial photosynthesis suffers from poor photon-to-current efficiency. Herein, we demonstrate an experimental analysis of electrolytic pH on photoelectrochemical syngas production by varying the pH of the KOH and NaOH electrolytes using the N-ZnO photoelectrode and analyzing all variables. A maximum photocurrent of 13.80 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V vs. RHE with a 43.51% photon-to-current conversion efficiency was obtained at pH 13 in the aqueous NaOH electrolyte.