Tandem Cuprous Oxide/Silicon Microwire Hydrogen-Evolving Photocathode with Photovoltage Exceeding 1.3 V

Vijselaar, Wouter; Kunturu, Pramod Patil; Moehl, Thomas; Tilley, S. David; Huskens, Jurriaan

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.9b01402

Cited by 30 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…[ 1–10 ] Solar to heat conversion, also called photothermal conversion, is one of the most important forms among the solar energy conversions, in addition to Si‐based photovoltaic cell, perovskite solar cell, photoelectrochemical water splitting, and so on. [ 11–19 ] It also ensures wide spread applications including photothermal imaging, seawater desalination, and photothermoelectric conversion. [ 20–24 ] Photothermal water evaporation is of great significance to take full advantage of solar energy without any other energy input.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐Efficiency Photothermal Water Evaporation using Broadband Solar Energy Harvesting by Ultrablack Silicon Structures

Cheng

Wang

et al. 2021

Adv Energy and Sustain Res

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Development of broadband absorption materials for solar energy harvesting is an important strategy to address global energy issues. Herein, it is demonstrated that an ultrablack silicon structure with abundant surface texturing can absorb about 98.7% solar light within the wavelength range of 300 to 2500 nm, i.e., a very large range and amount. Under 1 sun irradiation, the ultrablack silicon sample's surface temperature can increase from 21.2 to 51.2 °C in 15 min. During the photothermal water evaporation process, the ultrablack silicon sample's surface temperature can still reach a highest temperature of 43.2 °C. The average photothermal conversion efficiency (PTCE) can be as high as 72.96%. The excellent photothermal performance to the excellent light‐trapping ability of the pyramidal surface nanostructures during solar illumination, which leads to extremely efficient absorption of light, is attributed. In addition, the large water contact area also enables fast vapor transport. The stability of the photothermal converter is also examined, presenting excellent structure and performance stabilities over 10 cycles. This indicates that the ultrablack Si absorber can be a promising photothermal conversion material for seawater desalination, water purification, photothermal therapy, and more.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High‐Efficiency Photothermal Water Evaporation using Broadband Solar Energy Harvesting by Ultrablack Silicon Structures

Cheng

Wang

et al. 2021

Adv Energy and Sustain Res

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“…So far, the STH efficiency of Si coupled to a wide band gap semiconductor in a tandem configuration is below 5%, and the semiconductors are electrically connected with wires. − A more integrated design consists of Si in direct contact with a wide band gap semiconductor. Attempts at fabricating fully integrated tandem structures utilizing Si have not generated enough voltage to split water − until very recently. , Important considerations for these integrated tandem systems are the design of the interfaces between the semiconductors and the light absorption and photocurrent matching between the semiconductors. Since Si is the bottom absorber in the tandem configuration, photons will enter the Si through the backside, and the high-energy photons will be preferentially absorbed by the wide-band gap semiconductor .…”

Section: Outlook and Future Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Principles for Efficient and Stable Water Splitting Photoelectrocatalysts

2021

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Conspectus Photoelectrochemical water splitting is a promising avenue for sustainable production of hydrogen used in the chemical industry and hydrogen fuel cells. The basic components of most photoelectrochemical water splitting systems are semiconductor light absorbers coupled to electrocatalysts, which perform the desired chemical reactions. A critical challenge for the design of these systems is the lack of stability for the majority of desired semiconductors under operating water splitting conditions. One strategy to address this issue is to protect the semiconductor by covering it with a stabilizing insulator layer, creating a metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) architecture, which has demonstrated improved stability. In addition to enhanced stability, the insulator layer may significantly affect the electron and hole transfer, which governs the recombination rates. Furthermore, the insertion of an insulator layer leads to the introduction of additional insulator/electrocatalyst and insulator/semiconductor interfaces. These interfaces can impact the system’s performance significantly, and they need to be carefully engineered to optimize the efficiencies of MIS systems. In this Account, we describe our recent progress in shedding light on the critical role of the insulator and the interfaces on the performance of MIS systems. We discuss our findings by focusing on the concrete example of planar n-type Si protected by a HfO2 insulator layer and coupled to a Ni or Ir electrocatalyst that performs the oxygen evolution reaction, one of the water splitting half-reactions. To improve our fundamental understanding of the insulator layer, we precisely control the HfO2 insulator thickness using atomic layer deposition (ALD), and we perform a series of rigorous electrochemical experiments coupled with theory and modeling. We demonstrate that by tuning the insulator thickness, we can control the flux and recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes to optimize the generated photovoltage. Despite optimizing the thickness, we find that the maximum generated photovoltage in MIS systems is often significantly lower than the upper performance limit, i.e., there are additional losses in the system that could not be addressed by optimizing the insulator thickness. We identify the sources of these losses and describe strategies to minimize them by a combination of improving the semiconductor light absorption, removing nonidealities associated with interfacial defects, and finding alternative insulators with improved charge carrier selectivity. Finally, we quantify the improvements that can be obtained by implementing these specific strategies. Our collective work outlines strategies to analyze MIS systems, identify the sources of efficiency losses, and optimize the design to approach the fundamental performance limits. These general approaches are broadly applicable to photoelectrochemical materials that utilize sunlight to produce value-added chemicals.

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“…To overcome above-mentioned problems for Cu 2 O, strategies derived from employing complex light-matter interactions, such as incorporation of disorder back reflectors [96,97], tandem device architecture with structured Cu 2 O media [98][99][100] and dual-absorbers configuration characterized by a random surface morphology [92], are investigated.…”

Section: Photoelectrochemical Energy Conversion For Water Splitting and Co 2 Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing complex photonic systems for renewable energy

Tian

Bonifazi

et al. 2020

Advances in Physics: X

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The study of efficient mechanisms of photon conversion processes into electronic, thermal and chemical energy is an interdisciplinary research field spanning physics, chemistry and material science. In recent years, different physical mechanisms sustained by the engineering of diverse complex photonic structures have emerged to offer significant advances in the area of thermal energy generation, photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical energy transformation. The efficient behavior of these systems results from the integration, with different levels of complexity, of dielectric and metallic optical nanostructures into hierarchical disordered architectures, which have shown to significantly improve broadband light-harvesting, electronic charges extraction and light energy confinement. The review aims to concisely highlight the most recent progress in this field, with emphasis on discussing the physics and applications of complex lightwave systems for the realization of efficient processes of photon energy harvesting.

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Tandem Cuprous Oxide/Silicon Microwire Hydrogen-Evolving Photocathode with Photovoltage Exceeding 1.3 V

Cited by 30 publications

References 57 publications

High‐Efficiency Photothermal Water Evaporation using Broadband Solar Energy Harvesting by Ultrablack Silicon Structures

High‐Efficiency Photothermal Water Evaporation using Broadband Solar Energy Harvesting by Ultrablack Silicon Structures

Design Principles for Efficient and Stable Water Splitting Photoelectrocatalysts

Harnessing complex photonic systems for renewable energy

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