Accessing In Situ Photocorrosion Under Realistic Light Conditions
Ken Jenewein a b, Attila Kormányos a, Julius Knöppel a b, Karl Mayrhofer a b, Serhiy Cherevko a
a Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg (HIERN), Forschungszentrum Jülich
b Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Spring Meeting 2022 (NSM22)
#AdvMatSyn22. Advanced Materials Synthesis, Characterization, and Theory: for the Green Energy Leap
Online, Spain, 2022 March 7th - 11th
Organizer: Francesca Toma
, Ken Jenewein, presentation 365
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nsm.2022.365
Publication date: 7th February 2022

High-impact photoelectrode materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting are distinguished by synergistically attaining high photoactivity and stability at the same time. With numerous efforts toward optimizing the activity, the bigger challenge of tailoring the durability of photoelectrodes to meet industrially relevant levels remains. In situ photostability measurements using flow cells hold great promise in understanding stability-related properties [1-3] compared to traditional procedures, such as measuring the drop in photocurrent over time at 1.23 VRHE.

In this work, a photoelectrochemical scanning flow cell connected to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (PEC-ICP-MS) and equipped with a solar simulator, Air Mass 1.5 G filter, and monochromator was developed. The established system is capable of independently assessing basic PEC metrics, such as photopotential, photocurrent, incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE), and band gap in a high-throughput manner, as well as the in situ photocorrosion behavior of photoelectrodes under standardized and realistic light conditions by coupling it to an ICP-MS. [4] In situ photocorrosion measurements conducted on spray-coated WO3 revealed that dissolution starts at 0.8 VRHE with the dissolution rate rapidly increasing past 1.2 VRHE, coinciding with the onset of the saturation photocurrent. Wavelength-dependent photodegradation measurements show that dissolution of WO3 significantly increases when irradiated with wavelengths lower than its band gap. By using standardized illumination conditions such as AM 1.5 G under 1 Sun, the obtained dissolution characteristics are translatable to actual devices under realistic light conditions. The gained insights can then be utilized to advance synthesis and design approaches of novel PEC materials with improved photostability.

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