Affiliation:
1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401–3393, USA.
Abstract
Direct water electrolysis was achieved with a novel, integrated, monolithic photoelectrochemical-photovoltaic design. This photoelectrochemical cell, which is voltage biased with an integrated photovoltaic device, splits water directly upon illumination; light is the only energy input. The hydrogen production efficiency of this system, based on the short-circuit current and the lower heating value of hydrogen, is 12.4 percent.
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
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3. The ability of a semiconductor electrode to drive the electrochemical reaction of interest is determined by its band gap (the energy separation between the valence and conduction band edges) and the position of the valence and conduction band edges relative to the vacuum level (or other reference electrode). In contrast to metal electrodes semiconductor electrodes in contact with liquid electrolytes have fixed energies where the charge carriers enter the solution. This fixed energy is given by the energetic position of the semiconductor's valence and conduction bands at the surface (where these bands terminate at the semiconductor/electrolyte interface). The energetic position of these band edges is determined by the chemistry of the semiconductor/electrolyte interface which is controlled by the composition of the semiconductor the nature of the surface and the electrolyte composition. So even though a semiconductor electrode may generate sufficient energy to effect an electrochemical reaction the energetic position of the band edges may prevent it from doing so. For spontaneous water splitting the oxygen and hydrogen reactions must lie between the valence and conduction band edges and this is almost never the case.
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