Issue 8, 2016

Utilizing modeling, experiments, and statistics for the analysis of water-splitting photoelectrodes

Abstract

A multi-physics model of a planar water-splitting photoelectrode was developed, validated, and used to identify and quantify the most significant materials-related bottlenecks in photoelectrochemical device performance. The model accounted for electromagnetic wave propagation within the electrolyte and semiconductor, and for charge carrier transport within the semiconductor and at the semiconductor–electrolyte interface. Interface states at the semiconductor–electrolyte interface were considered using an extended Schottky contact model. The numerical model was validated with current–voltage measurements using an n-type GaN photoanode immersed in 1 M H2SO4. Numerical design of experiments and parametric analysis were conducted using the validated model in order to identify and optimize the key factors for water-splitting photoelectrodes. The methodology, developed using an experimentally-validated numerical model coupled to statistical analysis, provides a general approach to identify and quantify the main material challenges and design considerations in working PEC devices. In the case of n-type GaN, the surface recombination, flatband potential, and doping concentration were identified as the most significant parameters for the photocurrent density.

Graphical abstract: Utilizing modeling, experiments, and statistics for the analysis of water-splitting photoelectrodes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 9月 2015
Accepted
16 12月 2015
First published
22 12月 2015
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016,4, 3100-3114

Author version available

Utilizing modeling, experiments, and statistics for the analysis of water-splitting photoelectrodes

Y. K. Gaudy and S. Haussener, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 3100 DOI: 10.1039/C5TA07328F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements