Use of amorphous silicon tandem junction solar cells for hydrogen production in a photoelectrochemical cell

Gradient dopant profiling and spectral utilization of monolithic thin-film silicon photoelectrochemical tandem devices for solar water splitting

“…20,21,[23][24][25][26][27] In 2007, Zhu et al demonstrated a simple p/i a-SiC:H photocathode that was free of its native oxide and generated a photocurrent density of $À0.6 mA cm À2 at 0 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE). 20 Only at a negative bias of À1.5 V vs. RHE did the photocurrent density reach $À7 mA cm À2 , showing the large overpotential needed to drive the a-SiC:H photocathode to higher photocurrent densities.…”

Nanostructured silicon and its application to solar cells, position sensors and thin film transistors

“…After continuous AM1.5 where a strong device degradation, sometimes exceeding 20% has been reported [46]. These data cannot be compared with industry data where the devices are differently processed, as are the recent reported data from MVSystems and United Solar for instance [64][65][66][67][68][69]. The aim is to prove the consistency of the laboratory results [63] and the integration of these nanostructured silicon thin films in device structure such as solar cells, thin film position sensitive detectors and thin film transistors.…”

Amorphous Silicon Carbide Photoelectrode for Hydrogen Production from Water using Sunlight

“…The non-transparent electrode had to cover the active area of the solar cell in order to enlarge electrode-electrolyte contact to as large area as possible. In 2006, a "hybrid" PEC device consisting of substrate/amorphous silicon (nipnip)/ ZnO/WO 3 , which would lead to ~3% solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency, was reported (Stavrides, et al, 2006). In this configuration, transparent WO 3 prepared by sputtering technique acted as the photoelectrode, whereas the amorphous silicon tandem solar cell was used as a photovoltaic device to provide additional voltage for water splitting at the interface of photoelectrode-electrolyte.…”

“…So far water splitting using sunlight has two main approaches. The first is a two-step process, which means sunlight first transform into electricity which is then used to split water for hydrogen production (Tamaura, et al, 1995;Hassan & Hartmut, 1998). Though only about 2V is needed to split water, hydrogen production efficiency depends on large current via wires, resulting in loss due to its resistance; the two-step process for hydrogen production is complex and leads to a high cost.…”