ZnGa2Te4 thin-film absorbers for photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO₂RR) has been considered as a promising route to convert and store solar energy into chemical fuels. It is crucial to find suitable photoelectrode materials that are photo-catalytically active and exhibit excellent photochemical stability. One of the promising contenders is ZnTe with the ∼2.26 eV band gap and prolonged stability under CO₂RR PEC conditions. Herein, a new telluride based thin-film ZnGa₂Te₄ photocathode with lower band gap and stronger visible light absorption compared to ZnTe is synthesized and characterized using a combinatorial sputtering technique. A two-step annealing method with excess Te supply is implemented to synthesize nearly stoichiometric ZnGa₂Te₄ absorber material with a zincblende-derived tetragonal crystal structure confirmed by synchrotron X-ray and electron diffraction. Theoretical calculations show that ZnGa₂Te₄ has suitable direct bandgap (∼1.86 eV) and high absorption coefficient ∼10⁵ cm⁻¹, in agreement with experimentally prepared films. Transient absorption spectroscopy reveals the biexponential decay dynamics, with time constants, τ₁ ∼ 0.04, and τ₂ ∼ 0.65 μs in microsecond time scales and provides the optical transition pathways for this semiconductor thin film. PEC measurements show that the ZnGa₂Te₄ photocurrent densities are comparable to the widely investigated ZnTe photocathodes or even surpass it under simulated sunlight condition. ZnGa₂Te₄ samples demonstrate promising photoelectrochemical stability, maintaining consistent performance under illumination. The inclusion of diaryliodonium additive substantially increases its CO₂RR selectivity to ∼60%. These findings open a new avenue for the synthesis of telluride-based thin-film photocathodes for further exploration and will motivate future research to integrate this potential photocathode material into PEC devices.