Wafer-Scale Si-Based Metal−Insulator−Semiconductor Photoanodes for Water Oxidation Fabricated Using Thin Film Reactions and Multiple-layer Electrodeposited Catalysts
| dc.contributor | Yu, Edward | |
| dc.creator | Lee, Soonil | |
| dc.creator | Wu, Shang-Hsuan | |
| dc.creator | Yu, Edward | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-05-06T22:13:29Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-05-06T22:13:29Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-04-08 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting offers a promising and environmentally friendly route for the conversion of renewable solar energy to hydrogen gas. A crystalline Si absorber is especially attractive due to its moderate bandgap, high charge mobility, long carrier diffusion length, costeffectiveness, and scalability in manufacturing. To improve the stability of Si-based PEC cells in operation, metal−insulator− semiconductor (MIS) structures have been widely employed. In this work, we employ simple and highly scalable processes to fabricate high-performance, extremely stable Si-based MIS photoanodes, and demonstrate their application to the fabrication of wafer-scale photoanodes. Localized conduction paths formed via an Al/SiO2 thin-film reaction enable low-resistance charge extraction even through thick insulating layers, yielding photoanodes with excellent stability. To improve the efficiency, we demonstrate a twostep Ni/NiFe electrodeposition process to create efficient oxygen evolution reaction catalysts. The Ni/NiFe catalyst allows for a high Schottky barrier between Si and Ni, lowering the photoanode onset potential, while the NiFe surface layer improves the catalytic performance. An unassisted solar-driven water splitting system incorporating a wafer-scale photoanode and monocrystalline Si solar cells is demonstrated and yields a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 6.9% under simulated AM 1.5G sunlight illumination. | |
| dc.description.department | Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This research was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation (grant CBET-2109842). The authors acknowledge the use of the facilities and instrumentation supported by Texas Materials Institute, and by the National Science Foundation through the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials: an NSF MRSEC under Cooperative Agreement nos. DMR-1720595 and DMR-2308817. This work was performed in part at the University of Texas Microelectronics Research Center, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant ECCS-2025227). | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Lee, S; Wu, SH; Yu, ET. Wafer-Scale Si-Based Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Photoanodes for Water Oxidation Fabricated Using Thin Film Reactions and Multiple-layer Electrodeposited Catalysts. ACS Appl. Energ. Mater. 2024, (), -. DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.4c00016 . | |
| dc.identifier.doi | DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.4c00016 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/2152/125017 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/51609 | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UT Faculty/Researcher Works | en |
| dc.rights.restriction | Open | |
| dc.subject | solar water splitting, photoelectrode, photoanode, thin-film reaction, electrodeposition, metal−insulator−semiconductor structure, NiFe catalyst, solar energy | |
| dc.title | Wafer-Scale Si-Based Metal−Insulator−Semiconductor Photoanodes for Water Oxidation Fabricated Using Thin Film Reactions and Multiple-layer Electrodeposited Catalysts | |
| dc.type | JournalArticle |