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Title: Development of solar fuels photoanodes through combinatorial integration of Ni–La–Co–Ce oxide catalysts on BiVO4

Journal Article · · Energy & Environmental Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C5EE03488D· OSTI ID:1468642
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and Chemical Sciences Division

The development of an efficient photoanode remains the primary materials challenge in the establishment of a scalable technology for solar water splitting. The typical photoanode architecture consists of a semiconductor light absorber coated with a metal oxide that serves a combination of functions, including corrosion protection, electrocatalysis, light trapping, hole transport, and elimination of deleterious recombination sites. To date, such coatings have been mostly limited to simple materials such as TiO2 and Co-Pi, with extensive experimental and theoretical effort required to provide an understanding of the physics and chemistry of the semiconductor-coating interface. In order to provide a more efficient exploration of metal oxide coatings for a given light absorber, we introduce a high throughput methodology wherein a uniform BiVO4 thin film is coated with 858 unique metal oxides covering a range of metal oxide loadings and the full Ni–La–Co–Ce oxide quaternary composition space. Photoelectrochemical characterization of each photoanode reveals that approximately one third of the coatings lower the photoanode performance while select combinations of metal oxide composition and loading provide up to a 14-fold increase in the maximum photoelectrochemical power generation for oxygen evolution in pH 13 electrolyte. Particular Ce-rich coatings also exhibit an anti-reflection effect that further amplifies the performance, yielding a 20-fold enhancement in power conversion efficiency compared to bare BiVO4. By use of in situ optical spectroscopy and comparisons between the metal oxide coatings and their extrinsic optical and electrocatalytic properties, we present a suite of data-driven discoveries, including composition regions which form optimal interfaces with BiVO4 and photoanodes that are suitable for integration with a photocathode due to their excellent power conversion and solar transmission efficiencies. The high throughput experimentation and informatics provides a powerful platform for both identifying the pertinent interfaces for further study and discovering high performance photoanodes for incorporation into efficient water splitting devices.

Research Organization:
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0004993
OSTI ID:
1468642
Journal Information:
Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Issue 2; ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 52 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Elaborately Modified BiVO 4 Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting journal December 2018
Rational Design and Construction of Cocatalysts for Semiconductor-Based Photo-Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution: A Comprehensive Review journal November 2018
A Combinatorial Approach for Optimization of Oxygen Evolution Catalyst Loading on Mo‐doped BiVO 4 Photoanodes journal April 2019
Tracking materials science data lineage to manage millions of materials experiments and analyses journal July 2019
A facile, one-step electroless deposition of NiFeOOH nanosheets onto photoanodes for highly durable and efficient solar water oxidation journal January 2018
Unveiling new stable manganese based photoanode materials via theoretical high-throughput screening and experiments journal January 2019
Research Update: The materials genome initiative: Data sharing and the impact of collaborative ab initio databases journal March 2016
Fulfilling the promise of the materials genome initiative with high-throughput experimental methodologies journal March 2017
Recent developments in complex metal oxide photoelectrodes journal April 2017
Data-driven material discovery for photocatalysis: a short review journal July 2018