Anodic Reconstructed p⁺-GaAs/a-InAsN for Stable and Efficient Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution

The extremely poor solution stability and massive carrier recombination have seriously prevented III-V semiconductor nanomaterials from efficient and stable hydrogen production. In this work, an anodic reconstruction strategy based on group III-V active semiconductors is proposed for the first time, resulting in 19-times photo-gain. What matters most is that the device after anodic reconstruction shows very superior stability under the protracted photoelectrochemical (PEC) test over 8100 s, while the final photocurrent density does not decrease but rather increases by 63.15%. Using the experiment and DFT theoretical calculation, the anodic reconstruction mechanism is elucidated: through the oxidation of indium clusters and the migration of arsenic atoms, the reconstruction formed p⁺-GaAs/a-InAsN. The hole concentration of the former is increased by 10 times (5.64 × 10¹⁸ cm^-1 increases up to 5.95 × 10¹⁹ cm^-1) and the band gap of the latter one is reduced to a semi-metallic state, greatly strengthening the driving force of PEC water splitting. This work turns waste into treasure, transferring the solution instability into better efficiency.