Publication date: 15th December 2014
Photocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) water splitting using state-of-the-art semiconductor materials have attracted considerable attention because of the potential to produce hydrogen from water by utilizing abundant solar energy. One approach to achieve solar-induced water splitting is to employ two photoelectrocatalytic half-cells, with one cell acting as photocathode for hydrogen (HER) and the other as photoanode for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). For such tandem systems, the use of relatively small band gap materials (i.e., 1.1−1.7 eV) is desired in order to efficiently absorb light in the range of the terrestrial solar spectrum.In this contribution thin-film composites will be presented used as novel photoelectrodes. The composite photoelectrodes are based on the device-grade silicon and chalcopyrite photovoltaic materials [1a]. We will show that the photocathodes generate photovoltages up to 0.5 V, which results in a corresponding anodic shift of the photocurrent onset potential [1b]. Moreover, the best photocathodes exhibit incident-photo-to-current efficiency up to 80% in the complete visible light range [1c]. Additionally, various robust and low-cost thin film transition-metal oxide electrodes prepared by electrophoretic coating are successfully applied as electrocatalysts [2a]. The catalysts show low overpotentials for OER in the dark and reveal long-term stability with high current densities. A modified silicon photoanode coated with an ultra-thin NixOy layer displays an onset for OER shifted toward more cathodic values [2b]. The overall objective of the R&D activities is the development of a monolithic tandem lab-scale device for visible-light driven water splitting.
[1] a) F.Yang et al., J. Mat.Chem. A1, 6407 (2013); ChemSusChem 5,1227 (2012); b) M. Lublow et al., J. Mat. Chem. A2, 12697 (2014); c) A. Azarpira et al., Adv. Ener.Mat. (submitted 11/2014).
[2] a) J. Pfrommer et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 5183 (2014); b) M. Lublow et al. , Nature Materials (re-submitted 11/2014).
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