Tin doped indium oxide core—TiO2 shell nanowires on stainless steel mesh for flexible photoelectrochemical cells

Photoanode architecture is built on highly conductive tin doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires (NWs) on a flexible stainless steel mesh (SSM). ITO nanowires were coated with the atomic layer deposition grown TiO2 layer and the photoelectrochemical performance of the stainless steel mesh based photoanode were examined as a function of wire-length and shell-thickness. The photoanode consisting of 20 μm-long nanowire core and 36 nm thick shell increased the photocurrent of the testing cell by 4 times, compared to a reference cell. This enhanced photochemical activity is attributed to higher light harvesting efficiency of nanowire arrays and suppressed charge recombination of core-shell structure.