Solution-Deposited F:SnO2/TiO2 as a Base-Stable Protective Layer and Antireflective Coating for Microtextured Buried-Junction H2-evolving Si Photocathodes

被引:84
作者
Kast, Matthew G. [1 ]
Enman, Lisa J. [1 ]
Gurnon, Nicholas J. [1 ]
Nadarajah, Athavan [1 ]
Boettcher, Shannon W. [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Oregon, Dept Chem & Biochem, Eugene, OR 97403 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
solar; hydrogen; photocathode; protective layer; failure mechanism; alkaline electrolyte; OXYGEN EVOLUTION REACTION; HYDROGEN-EVOLUTION; WATER OXIDATION; H-2; EVOLUTION; SILICON PHOTOANODES; THIN-FILMS; TIO2; ELECTROCATALYSTS; EFFICIENT; CATALYSTS;
D O I
10.1021/am506999p
中图分类号
TB3 [工程材料学];
学科分类号
0805 ; 080502 ;
摘要
Protecting Si photocathodes from corrosion is important for developing tandem water-splitting devices operating in basic media. We show that textured commercial Si-pn(+) photovoltaics protected by solution-processed semiconducting/conducting oxides (plausibly suitable for scalable manufacturing) and coupled to thin layers of Ir yield high-performance H-2-evolving photocathodes in base. They also serve as excellent test structures to understand corrosion mechanisms and optimize interfacial electrical contacts between various functional layers. Solution-deposited TiO2 protects Si-pn(+) junctions from corrosion for similar to 24 h in base, whereas junctions protected by F:SnO2 fail after only 1 h of electrochemical cycling. Interface layers consisting of Ti metal and/or the highly doped F:SnO2 between the Si and TiO2 reduce Si-emitter/oxide/catalyst contact resistance and thus increase fill factor and efficiency. Controlling the oxide thickness led to record photocurrents near 35 mA cm(-2) at 0 V vs RHE and photocathode efficiencies up to 10.9% in the best cells. Degradation, however, was not completely suppressed. We demonstrate that performance degrades by two mechanisms, (1) deposition of impurities onto the thin catalyst layers, even from high-purity base, and (2) catastrophic failure via pinholes in the oxide layers after several days of operation. These results provide insight into the design of hydrogen-evolving photoelectrodes in basic conditions, and highlight challenges.
引用
收藏
页码:22830 / 22837
页数:8
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