Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2018 (NFM18)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2018.343
Publication date: 6th July 2018
The development of photoelectrochemical strategies for the production of added-value chemicals and fuels using solar light is particularly attractive to overcome the dependence of fossil fuels at a global scale.[1] Specifically, the photoelectrochemical oxidation of H2O to produce solar H2 as a clean energy vector or valuable chemical precursor stands out as one of the most promising approaches in this direction. Different approaches have been followed to achieve competitive devices, targeting Solar To Hydrogen (STH) efficiency of 10%, durability of 10 years and cost of 2-4 $/kg of dispensed Hydrogen.[2] For this purpose, the use of low-cost, earth-abundant, stable materials synthesized by easily up-scalable methods is essential.[3] In the present talk, we will discuss about the suitability of earth-abundant metal oxides to achieve these targets. Different examples of the synergistic combination of metal oxides (Fe2O3[4], and BiVO4[5],[6]) with catalytic layers (Fe-Co Prussian Blue, Ag3PO4, etc…) will be described, emphasizing the mechanistic insights leading to enhanced performance. Our studies focus on the correlation of the photoelectrochemical response of the materials with a detailed structural and mechanistic characterization carried out by different microscopic and spectroscopic tools.