Synthesis and photoelectrochemical properties of tungsten oxide arrays with a snowflake-like hierarchical structure

In this study, we successfully fabricated well-aligned WO3 snowflake-like hierarchical arrays (SHAs) with (020) facet perpendicular to FTO substrate. The fabricated samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, and UV-vis. The SHA photoanode exhibited an impressive photocurrent density of 2.43 mA & BULL;cm 2 at 1.23 V vs RHE, which is 1.76 times higher than the sandwich-like structures (SSs). This improved performance can be attributed to the special SHAs and the preferred orientation, which would effectively promote the separation and transfer of carriers.