Neutral Water Splitting Catalysis with a High FF Triple Junction Polymer Cell

Elias, Xavier; Liu, Quan; Gimbert‐Suriñach, Carolina; Matheu, Roc; Mantilla-Pérez, Paola; Martínez-Otero, Alberto; Sala, Xavier; Martorell, Jordi; Llobet, Antoni

doi:10.1021/acscatal.6b01036

Cited by 28 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(97 reference statements)

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“…As a result, after a few catalytic cycles, the only Ru species left at the electrode surface are RuO 2 NPs. With a TOF i of 300 s −1 at Γ =1.0 pmol cm −2 , this system outperforms the state‐of‐the‐art systems prepared ex situ by several orders of magnitude (see TOF data in Tables and ), and it has been incorporated into a photovoltaic electrolyzer cell (PV‐EC), together with an earth‐abundant cathode and a triple‐junction polymer cell, to achieve solar to hydrogen conversion efficiencies of around 6 % . The reasons for the strikingly fast kinetics of this in situ generated RuO 2 electrocatalyst still remain unclear.…”

Section: Oxygen Evolution Reaction (Oer)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ruthenium Nanoparticles for Catalytic Water Splitting

et al. 2019

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Both global warming and limited fossil resources make the transition from fossil to solar fuels an urgent matter. In this regard, the splitting of water activated by sunlight is a sustainable and carbon‐free new energy conversion scheme able to produce efficient technological devices. The availability of appropriate catalysts is essential for the proper kinetics of the two key processes involved, namely, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). During the last decade, ruthenium nanoparticle derivatives have emerged as true potential substitutes for the state‐of‐the‐art platinum and iridium oxide species for the HER and OER, respectively. Thus, after a summary of the most common methods for catalyst benchmarking, this review covers the most significant developments of ruthenium‐based nanoparticles used as catalysts for the water‐splitting process. Furthermore, the key factors that govern the catalytic performance of these nanocatalysts are discussed in view of future research directions.

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Section: Oxygen Evolution Reaction (Oer)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ruthenium Nanoparticles for Catalytic Water Splitting

et al. 2019

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“…With respect to the tandem cell, the efficiency of the triple‐junction cells was lower (PCE of 8.35% for the tandem and PCE of 7.42% for the triple), likely due to the fact that the tandem already afforded a nearly complete absorption of light. Two additional examples about the use of triple‐junction polymer solar cells for water splitting will be discussed in Section . Di Carlo Rasi et al reported three triple‐junction solar cells fabricated using the same PEDOT:PSS/zinc oxide ICL, also discussed in Section .…”

Section: Triple‐ and Quadruple‐junction Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cell thus affords η STH of 6.6% when assuming 100% Faradaic efficiency. In the same year, Elias et al presented a homo‐triple junction for water splitting, i.e., using the same absorber in all the three subcells, PTB7:PC 70 BM . The structure of this device was inverted, with the successful MoO 3 /Ag/PFN stack as ICL.…”

Section: Use Of Multijunction Polymer Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

2018

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Single-junction solar cells are principally limited in performance by two factors (Figure 1a). Electrons excited by photons with energy higher than the bandgap relax to the band edges, releasing surplus energy as heat (thermalization loss). Photons with energy lower than the bandgap are not absorbed (transmission loss). These losses can be alleviated with two or more absorber layers. The first layer should feature a wide bandgap material to reduce the thermalization loss for high-energy photons. The second layer should have a lower bandgap to absorb the low-energy photons that pass the first layer. In such configuration a tandem cell provides less thermalization and less transmission losses than each of the corresponding single-junction cells. In the detailed-balance limit, a double-junction (tandem) cell can reach an efficiency of 42% and a triple-junction cell 49%. [6] To construct a tandem cell, the two complementary absorber layers must be stacked optically and electrically ( Figure 1b). The interconnecting layer (ICL) between the two subcells must pass light and sustain the photocurrent by providing an optically transparent electrical contact for recombination of electrons and holes from the adjacent photoactive layers. The Fermi level of the hole-transporting layer (HTL) and the electron-transporting layer (ETL) that jointly form the ICL must match the relevant highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels in the adjacent photoactive layers (Figure 1b). The ICL should not cause voltage losses and have low resistance. The open-circuit voltage (V OC ) of the tandem solar cell is ideally the sum of the V OC s of the subcells and the photocurrent is limited by the subcell generating less current. To overcome the intrinsic performance limits of single-junction cells, the subcells should absorb complementary regions of the solar spectrum and generate equal photocurrent.In the first organic tandem solar cells, materials were thermally evaporated. Initially only metal clusters were used to interconnect the subcells, [7][8][9] later complemented by p-and n-doped organic transport layers. [10,11] In 2007, the first fully solution-processed tandem polymer solar cells were reported by Gilot et al. [12] and Kim et al. [13] In both examples the ICL featured a layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) as HTL, stacked on top of either a zinc oxide or a titanium oxide layer as ETL. Kim et al. achieved a PCE of 6.5%. Since then PCEs have steadily increased. Major improvements involved the use of more efficient photoactive blends that afford a high V OC relative to their optical bandgap The efficiency of organic solar cells can benefit from multijunction device architectures, in which energy losses are substantially reduced. Herein, recent developments in the field of solution-processed multijunction organic solar cells are described. Recently, various strategies have been investigated and implemented to improve the performance of these device...

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“…There are few examples of triple-junction organic solar cells. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] The gain in efficiency achieved by these triple-junction devices was not always accompanied by a critical analysis of the measured performance. In a recent publication, Timmreck et al methodically analyzed the literature on tandem organic solar cells, shedding light on the fact that the vast majority of the publications on organic tandem cells lacked a proper characterization.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, the characterization of organic triple-junctions is often limited to measuring the J−V characteristics under simulated solar radiation and determining the external quantum efficiency (EQE) using different light sources to optically bias the subcells. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] Nevertheless, organic materials commonly employed for solar cells feature peculiar characteristics that necessitate special attention for their EQE measurement. [42][43][44] An accurate analysis of the effect of bias light and bias voltage on the EQE of triple-junction organic solar cells is necessary.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate Characterization of Triple‐Junction Polymer Solar Cells

Rasi

Hendriks

Wienk

et al. 2017

Advanced Energy Materials

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organic semiconductors have been developed to absorb light into the near infrared region. [8] The gain in spectral coverage and short-circuit current density (J SC ) in the cells is, however, counteracted by an unavoidable loss in the open-circuit voltage (V OC ) when the bandgap decreases. [9] Given the intrinsic limits of singlejunction organic solar cells, there has been an increasing interest to develop multijunction architectures. [10] This paves the way to efficient solar cells by an improved utilization of photon energy. In a multijunction solar cell sunlight is spectrally distributed over two, or more subcells such that highenergy photons are absorbed in a wide bandgap subcell and low-energy photons in a small bandgap subcell. This reduces the thermalization losses for high-energy photons and the transmission losses for the low-energy photons. Most studies have focused on the tandem architecture, in which identical or different absorber layers are used, resulting in maximum efficiencies in the range of 10-13%. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] At least conceptually, stacking three absorber layers in a triple-junction solar cell can lead to a further increase in efficiency. There are few examples of triple-junction organic solar cells. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] The gain in efficiency achieved by these triple-junction devices was not always accompanied by a critical analysis of the measured performance. In a recent publication, Timmreck et al. methodically analyzed the literature on tandem organic solar cells, shedding light on the fact that the vast majority of the publications on organic tandem cells lacked a proper characterization. [42] Although the paper focused attention on the tandem structure, the argumentations provided can reasonably be extended to the case of triple-junctions. At present, the characterization of organic triple-junctions is often limited to measuring the J−V characteristics under simulated solar radiation and determining the external quantum efficiency (EQE) using different light sources to optically bias the subcells. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] Nevertheless, organic materials commonly employed for solar cells feature peculiar characteristics that necessitate special attention for their EQE measurement. [42][43][44] An accurate analysis of the effect of bias light and bias voltage on the EQE of triple-junction organic solar cells is necessary.Detailed protocols for the characterization of triple-junction solar cells are available in the literature. [45] For many inorganic triple-junction solar cells the effect of bias voltage on the spectral response is very small, which makes correction for bias voltage not critical. [45] The aim of this work is to provide a characterization protocol for organic triple-junction solar cells that take into account the uniqueness of these particular materials. In order to do so, we combine optical and electrical modeling, use

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Neutral Water Splitting Catalysis with a High FF Triple Junction Polymer Cell

Cited by 28 publications

References 39 publications

Ruthenium Nanoparticles for Catalytic Water Splitting

Ruthenium Nanoparticles for Catalytic Water Splitting

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

Accurate Characterization of Triple‐Junction Polymer Solar Cells

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