Babu, M.S.Sivanantham, A.Chakravarthi, B.B.Kannan, R.S.Panda, S.K.Berchmans, L.J.Arya, S.B.Sreedhar, G.2026-02-052017Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2017, 17, 1, pp. 437-44215334880https://doi.org/10.1166/jnn.2017.12410https://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/25814We report the fabrication of tuned band gap quantum dots sensitized LaB<inf>6</inf> hybrid nanostructures and their application as a photoanode for photoelectrochemical water splitting. The lanthanum hexaboride (LaB<inf>6</inf>) obtained by molten salt electrolysis method is sensitized with different sized CdSe quantum dots, which form a multiple-level hierarchical heterostructure and such design enhance the light absorption and charge carrier separation, which in turn showed higher photocurrent density compared to that of pristine LaB<inf>6</inf>. When LaB<inf>6</inf> is sensitized with CdSe quantum dots of different band gaps, which have the absorption in the green and red (530 and 605 nm) regions in visible light, developed a ten times higher photocurrent density (11.0 mA cm-2) compared to that of pristine LaB<inf>6</inf> (0.5 mA cm-2 at 0.75 V vs. Ag/AgCl) in 1 M Na<inf>2</inf>S electrolyte under illumination. These results prove that the tuned band gap quantum dots sensitized LaB<inf>6</inf> heterostructures are an ideal candidate for a photoanode in solar water splitting applications. © © 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.Cadmium selenideLanthanum hexaboridePhotoelectrocatalystSensitizationWater splitting