1. Materials and Architectures for Highly Efficient Photoelectrochemical Solar Cell Devices
Giovanni Zangari, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) Cells which directly convert solar radiation in chemical energy in the form of H2 may be used as an energy source free of greenhouse gases. The high surface area and 1D transport of TiO2 nanotubes make them a promising material for use in PEC cells. Because TiO2 only absorbs in the UV, we seek to pair it with semiconductor metal oxides which can absorb from the visible portion of the solar spectrum to improve efficiency. Our research highlights are as follows:
Electrodeposition techniques are being developed to pair Cu2O or Fe2O3 with the TiO2 nanotubes.
PEC experiments show that the Cu2O/TiO2 combination exhibits improved photocurrent response to visible light.
The morphological stability of Cu2O during PEC experiments has been characterized.
Future research will focus on developing methods to electrodeposit Cu2O more uniformly with the objective of optimizing the efficiency of the TiO2-Cu2O system, and on investigating the performance of Fe2O3.
Photogenerated electrons
Incident
Light H2
½O2
2e- e- h+
2H+
Anode
(TiO2+Cu2O)
Cathode
(Pt)
H2O → 2H+ + 2e- + ½O2
Split Water + Evolve Oxygen
2H+ + 2e- → H2
Evolve Hydrogen