Issue 46, 2022

High-throughput exploration of activity and stability for identifying photoelectrochemical water splitting materials

Abstract

The experimental high-throughput (HT) exploration for a suitable solar water splitting photoanode has greatly relied on photoactivity as the sole descriptor to identify a promising region within the searched composition space. Although activity is essential, it is not sufficient for describing the overall performance and excludes other pertinent criteria for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Photostability in the form of (photo)electrocatalyst dissolution must be tracked to illustrate the intricate relation between activity and stability for multinary photoelectrocatalysts. To access these two important metrics simultaneously, an automated PEC scanning flow cell coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (PEC-ICP-MS) was used to study an Fe–Ti–W–O thin film materials library. The results reveal an interrelation between composition, photocurrent density, and element-specific dissolution. These structure–activity–stability correlations can be represented using data science tools like principal component analysis (PCA) in addition to common data visualization approaches. This study demonstrates the importance of addressing two of the most important catalyst metrics (activity and stability) in a rapid and parallel fashion during HT experiments to adequately discover high-performing compositions in the multidimensional search space.

Graphical abstract: High-throughput exploration of activity and stability for identifying photoelectrochemical water splitting materials

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
13 9 2022
Accepted
05 11 2022
First published
07 11 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 13774-13781

High-throughput exploration of activity and stability for identifying photoelectrochemical water splitting materials

K. J. Jenewein, S. Thienhaus, A. Kormányos, A. Ludwig and S. Cherevko, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 13774 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC05115J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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