Quantifying Losses and Assessing the Photovoltage Limits in Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Water Splitting Systems

Metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) photo-electrocatalysts offer a pathway to stable and efficient solar water splitting. Initially motivated as a strategy to protect the underlying semiconductor photoabsorber from harsh operating conditions, the thickness of the insulator layer in MIS systems has recently been shown to be a critical design parameter which can be tuned to optimize the photovoltage. This study analyzes the underlying mechanism by which the thickness of the insulator layer impacts the performance of MIS photo-electrocatalysts. A concrete example of an Ir/HfO2/n-Si MIS system is investigated for the oxygen evolution reaction. The results of combined experiments and modeling suggest that the insulator thickness affects the photovoltage i) favorably by controlling the flux of charge carriers from the semiconductor to the metal electrocatalyst and ii) adversely by introducing nonidealities such as surface defect states which limit the generated photovoltage. It is important to quantify these different mechanisms and suggest avenues for addressing these nonidealities to enable the rational design of MIS systems that can approach the fundamental photovoltage limits. The analysis described in this contribution as well as the strategy toward optimizing the photovoltage are generalizable to other MIS systems.