Publication date: 15th December 2014
To enable widespread implementation of photoelectrochemical water splitting technology for global scale solar energy conversion, low cost materials prepared from abundant elements will be required. Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is one such material that is quite promising due to the abundance of copper, suitable bandgap, and favorable band alignments for reducing water and carbon dioxide. In aqueous media, a protective overlayer is required to prevent corrosion of the Cu2O. We demonstrate that a simple steam treatment of the multilayer TiO2-protected Cu2O-based photocathodes dramatically enhances the stability, with durability measurements now being carried out in excess of 50 hours with <10% loss in photocurrent.1 With SEM and cross-sectional TEM, we demonstrate that the steam treatment has a smoothing effect on the overlayer, which plays an important role in the electrodeposition of the co-catalyst. Moreover, this method preserves the amorphous nature of the TiO2 protective overlayer, and thus may be suitable for TiO2-protected photoanodes.2
References:
(1) Azevedo, J.; Steier, L.; Dias, P.; Stefik, M.; Sousa, C. T.; Araújo, J. P.; Mendes, A.; Graetzel, M.; Tilley, S. D. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 4044.
(2) Hu, S.; Shaner, M. R.; Beardslee, J. A.; Lichterman, M.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S. Science 2014, 344, 1005.
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