**4. Conclusion**

*Silver Micro-Nanoparticles - Properties, Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications*

*Hydrogen gas evolution as a function of the white light illumination time. The evolution was calculated from the measured photocurrent current density under a white light illumination of intensity 50 mW cm−2.*

**200**

**Figure 7.**

**Figure 6.**

The maximum value of the STH ~4.5% near the *sat*

*50 mW cm−2 using a PEC cell in a three electrode arrangement.*

was found to be quite higher as compared to the earlier reports [36, 38]. This indicates the vibrant impact of the dendritic heteronanostructures on the PEC

*Solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency (STH) of the dendritic heteronanostructures photoanodes as a function of applied bias. PEC solar water splitting was performed under a white light enlightenment of intensity* 

*<sup>p</sup> J* ~1.7 mA cm−2 at *V*ext = 0.4 V

Metal assisted wet chemical etching of silicon resulted in the synthesis of semiconductor dendritic heteronanostructures. In the PEC water splitting, these dendritic heteronanostructures as working electrode showed reasonably good solarto-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 4.5%. Photocurrent density was found to be enhanced due to the availability of (a) additionally large surface area of such type of nanostructures for the light absorption and (b) the presence of silver dendrites which increase the charge carrier transfer by minimizing the carrier recombination process. Low charge transfer resistance of the working electrode and water boundary and the higher carrier concentration resulted in efficient PEC water splitting. Hydrogen gas evolution showed a negligible decrease with an average rate of ~1.7 *μ* mol min−1 over the light illumination time. This indicates the good stability of the dendritic heteronanostructures as working electrodes in natural water. The solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency was found to be about 4.5% indicating that synthesized dendrites nanostructures was working as an efficient working electrode for water splitting.
