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Title: Solar hydrogen production using epitaxial SrTiO3 on a GaAs photovoltaic

Journal Article · · Energy & Environmental Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c6ee03170f· OSTI ID:1358013
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [1];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [1];  [10]
  1. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics and Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Dept. of Nanoengineering
  3. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  5. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; University of Bologna (Italy). Dept. of Chemistry
  6. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Dept.
  7. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena and Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering
  8. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States). Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  9. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics, Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena and Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science
  10. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
+ Show Author Affiliations

We demonstrate an oxide-stabilized III–V photoelectrode architecture for solar fuel production from water in neutral pH. For this tunable architecture we demonstrate 100% Faradaic efficiency for hydrogen evolution, and incident photon-to-current efficiencies (IPCE) exceeding 50%. High IPCE for hydrogen evolution is a consequence of the low-loss interface achieved via epitaxial growth of a thin oxide on a GaAs solar cell. Developing optimal energetic alignment across the interfaces of the photoelectrode using well-established III–V technology is key to obtaining high performance. This advance constitutes a critical milestone towards efficient, unassisted fuel production from solar energy.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704; AR0000508; AC02-98CH10886; DMR-1309868
OSTI ID:
1358013
Report Number(s):
BNL-113819-2017-JA; R&D Project: MA015MACA; KC0201010
Journal Information:
Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 43 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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  • Boettcher, Shannon W.; Warren, Emily L.; Putnam, Morgan C.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 133, Issue 5, p. 1216-1219 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja108801m
journal January 2011
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Cited By (12)

Facile synthesis of Ag/ZnO metal–semiconductor hierarchical photocatalyst nanostructures via the galvanic-potential-enhanced hydrothermal method journal January 2018
Karst landform-featured monolithic electrode for water electrolysis in neutral media journal January 2020
Tailored TiO 2 Protection Layer Enabled Efficient and Stable Microdome Structured p‐GaAs Photoelectrochemical Cathodes journal January 2020
A review of synthesis and morphology of SrTiO 3 for energy and other applications journal May 2019
Chemical and electronic structure analysis of a SrTiO3 (001)/p-Ge (001) hydrogen evolution photocathode journal March 2018
Efficiency and stability of narrow-gap semiconductor-based photoelectrodes journal January 2019
Epitaxial Oxides on Semiconductors: From Fundamentals to New Devices journal July 2019
Scalable Synthesis of the Transparent Conductive Oxide SrVO 3 journal October 2019
The synthesis of SrTiO 3 nanocubes and the analysis of nearly ideal diode application of Ni/SrTiO 3 nanocubes/n-Si heterojunctions journal January 2018
Density Functional Theory Calculations Revealing Metal‐like Band Structures and Work Function Variation for Ultrathin Gallium Arsenide (111) Surface Layers journal June 2019
Stabilization of GaAs photoanodes by in situ deposition of nickel-borate surface catalysts as hole trapping sites journal January 2019
Oxide heterostructures for high density 2D electron gases on GaAs journal January 2018

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