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

Abstract

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.

Authors:
 [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
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1358013
Report Number(s):
BNL-113819-2017-JA
Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692; R&D Project: MA015MACA; KC0201010
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012704; AR0000508; AC02-98CH10886; DMR-1309868
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Energy & Environmental Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 08 HYDROGEN

Citation Formats

Kornblum, L., Fenning, D. P., Faucher, J., Hwang, J., Boni, A., Han, M. G., Morales-Acosta, M. D., Zhu, Y., Altman, E. I., Lee, M. L., Ahn, C. H., Walker, F. J., and Shao-Horn, Y. Solar hydrogen production using epitaxial SrTiO3 on a GaAs photovoltaic. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1039/c6ee03170f.
Kornblum, L., Fenning, D. P., Faucher, J., Hwang, J., Boni, A., Han, M. G., Morales-Acosta, M. D., Zhu, Y., Altman, E. I., Lee, M. L., Ahn, C. H., Walker, F. J., & Shao-Horn, Y. Solar hydrogen production using epitaxial SrTiO3 on a GaAs photovoltaic. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6ee03170f
Kornblum, L., Fenning, D. P., Faucher, J., Hwang, J., Boni, A., Han, M. G., Morales-Acosta, M. D., Zhu, Y., Altman, E. I., Lee, M. L., Ahn, C. H., Walker, F. J., and Shao-Horn, Y. 2016. "Solar hydrogen production using epitaxial SrTiO3 on a GaAs photovoltaic". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6ee03170f. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1358013.
@article{osti_1358013,
title = {Solar hydrogen production using epitaxial SrTiO3 on a GaAs photovoltaic},
author = {Kornblum, L. and Fenning, D. P. and Faucher, J. and Hwang, J. and Boni, A. and Han, M. G. and Morales-Acosta, M. D. and Zhu, Y. and Altman, E. I. and Lee, M. L. and Ahn, C. H. and Walker, F. J. and Shao-Horn, Y.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1039/c6ee03170f},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1358013}, journal = {Energy & Environmental Science},
issn = {1754-5692},
number = 1,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Thu Dec 22 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

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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

Using TiO 2 as a Conductive Protective Layer for Photocathodic H 2 Evolution
journal, January 2013


Works referencing / citing this record:

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


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