Predicting the maximal efficiency of direct Z-scheme artificial photosynthesis: 11.4 %
Johan Lauwaert a, Nithin Jacob a
a Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University, Technology Park 126, 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium
Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS23 & Sustainable Technology Forum València (STECH23) (MATSUS23)
#Adinos - Advances in inorganic thin film semiconductors for solar energy conversion: From photovoltaics to solar fuels
VALÈNCIA, Spain, 2023 March 6th - 10th
Organizer: Sudhanshu Shukla
Invited Speaker, Johan Lauwaert, presentation 049
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.049
Publication date: 22nd December 2022

Photocatalytic technologies are growing at higher technology readiness levels to mediate the reduction of CO2 to generate alternatives for fossil fuels with the assistance of outdoor solar light. Good designed photocatalytic structures have a great potential in splitting of water for the production of hydrogen and reduction of carbon dioxide to generate hydrocarbon fuels. Among all the photocatalytic structures that can mediate this process the Z-scheme equivalent to photosynthesis looks the most promising. Such a structure can optimize the photocatalytic activity due to the effectiveness of separating the electron hole pair compared to a single photocatalyst. The efficiency of the generation of carriers by this dual n-type photocatalysts as in the Z-scheme that combine into a heterojunction, supporting the oxidation and reduction reaction are studied. In this work a theory is presented for the electronic characteristics of a direct Z-scheme semiconductor heterojunction under solar irradiation. Based on the idealization of this theory we predicted the maximal efficiency for the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy of such a direct Z-scheme to be 11.4 %.

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