Hole-Storage Enhanced a-Si Photocathodes for Efficient Hydrogen Production

Doudou Zhang; Minyong Du; Pengpeng Wang; Hui Wang; Wenwen Shi; Yuying Gao; Siva Karuturi; Kylie Catchpole; Jian Zhang; Fengtao Fan; Jingying Shi; Shengzhong Liu

doi:10.1002/anie.202100078

Hole-Storage Enhanced a-Si Photocathodes for Efficient Hydrogen Production

Doudou Zhang, Minyong Du, Pengpeng Wang, Hui Wang, Wenwen Shi, Yuying Gao, Siva Karuturi, Kylie Catchpole, Jian Zhang, Fengtao Fan, Jingying Shi^*, Shengzhong Liu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Ferrihydrite (Fh) has been demonstrated as an effective interfacial layer for photoanodes to achieve outstanding photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for water oxidation reaction owing to its unique hole-storage function. However, it is unknown whether such a hole-storage layer can be used to construct highly efficient photocathodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, we report Fh interfacial engineering of amorphous silicon photocathode (with nickel as HER cocatalyst) achieving a photocurrent density of 15.6 mA cm⁻² at 0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode and a half-cell energy conversion efficiency of 4.08 % in alkaline solution, outperforming most of reported a-Si based photocathodes including multi-junction configurations integrated with noble metal cocatalysts in acid solution. Besides, the photocurrent density is maintained above 14 mA cm⁻² for 175 min with 100 % Faradaic efficiency for HER in alkaline solution. Our results demonstrate a feasible approach to construct efficient photocathodes via the application of a hole-storage layer.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	11966-11972
Number of pages	7
Journal	Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume	60
Issue number	21
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202100078
Publication status	Published - 17 May 2021

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title = "Hole-Storage Enhanced a-Si Photocathodes for Efficient Hydrogen Production",

abstract = "Ferrihydrite (Fh) has been demonstrated as an effective interfacial layer for photoanodes to achieve outstanding photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for water oxidation reaction owing to its unique hole-storage function. However, it is unknown whether such a hole-storage layer can be used to construct highly efficient photocathodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, we report Fh interfacial engineering of amorphous silicon photocathode (with nickel as HER cocatalyst) achieving a photocurrent density of 15.6 mA cm−2 at 0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode and a half-cell energy conversion efficiency of 4.08 % in alkaline solution, outperforming most of reported a-Si based photocathodes including multi-junction configurations integrated with noble metal cocatalysts in acid solution. Besides, the photocurrent density is maintained above 14 mA cm−2 for 175 min with 100 % Faradaic efficiency for HER in alkaline solution. Our results demonstrate a feasible approach to construct efficient photocathodes via the application of a hole-storage layer.",

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author = "Doudou Zhang and Minyong Du and Pengpeng Wang and Hui Wang and Wenwen Shi and Yuying Gao and Siva Karuturi and Kylie Catchpole and Jian Zhang and Fengtao Fan and Jingying Shi and Shengzhong Liu",

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year = "2021",

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doi = "10.1002/anie.202100078",

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T1 - Hole-Storage Enhanced a-Si Photocathodes for Efficient Hydrogen Production

AU - Zhang, Doudou

AU - Du, Minyong

AU - Wang, Pengpeng

AU - Wang, Hui

AU - Shi, Wenwen

AU - Gao, Yuying

AU - Karuturi, Siva

AU - Catchpole, Kylie

AU - Zhang, Jian

AU - Fan, Fengtao

AU - Shi, Jingying

AU - Liu, Shengzhong

PY - 2021/5/17

Y1 - 2021/5/17

N2 - Ferrihydrite (Fh) has been demonstrated as an effective interfacial layer for photoanodes to achieve outstanding photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for water oxidation reaction owing to its unique hole-storage function. However, it is unknown whether such a hole-storage layer can be used to construct highly efficient photocathodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, we report Fh interfacial engineering of amorphous silicon photocathode (with nickel as HER cocatalyst) achieving a photocurrent density of 15.6 mA cm−2 at 0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode and a half-cell energy conversion efficiency of 4.08 % in alkaline solution, outperforming most of reported a-Si based photocathodes including multi-junction configurations integrated with noble metal cocatalysts in acid solution. Besides, the photocurrent density is maintained above 14 mA cm−2 for 175 min with 100 % Faradaic efficiency for HER in alkaline solution. Our results demonstrate a feasible approach to construct efficient photocathodes via the application of a hole-storage layer.

AB - Ferrihydrite (Fh) has been demonstrated as an effective interfacial layer for photoanodes to achieve outstanding photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for water oxidation reaction owing to its unique hole-storage function. However, it is unknown whether such a hole-storage layer can be used to construct highly efficient photocathodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, we report Fh interfacial engineering of amorphous silicon photocathode (with nickel as HER cocatalyst) achieving a photocurrent density of 15.6 mA cm−2 at 0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode and a half-cell energy conversion efficiency of 4.08 % in alkaline solution, outperforming most of reported a-Si based photocathodes including multi-junction configurations integrated with noble metal cocatalysts in acid solution. Besides, the photocurrent density is maintained above 14 mA cm−2 for 175 min with 100 % Faradaic efficiency for HER in alkaline solution. Our results demonstrate a feasible approach to construct efficient photocathodes via the application of a hole-storage layer.

KW - alkaline medium

KW - amorphous silicon

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KW - hydrogen production

KW - photoelectrochemical

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U2 - 10.1002/anie.202100078

DO - 10.1002/anie.202100078

M3 - Article

SN - 1433-7851

VL - 60

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JO - Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

JF - Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

IS - 21

ER -

Hole-Storage Enhanced a-Si Photocathodes for Efficient Hydrogen Production

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