Aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition of metal oxide thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Abstract

Available online xxxKeywords: AACVD Metal oxide Thin film Photoelectrochemical cells Water splittingHydrogen production a b s t r a c t Hydrogen energy has emerged as an alternative energy source. There are many processes for hydrogen production, which include both reforming and non-reforming hydrogen production. This paper reviews the benefits of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting as a promising method for the production of hydrogen. Consequently, fabrication of efficient photoelectrode is crucial to achieve high performance cells. Aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) is discussed as a promising fabrication method for the materialization of thin films in terms of their homogeneity and uniformity. From this perspective, we discuss the AACVD process and the influence of the deposition parameters on PEC water splitting.

Nanostructured Fe2O3 Processing via Water‐Assisted ALD and Low‐Temperature CVD from a Versatile Iron Ketoiminate Precursor

“…Additionally, the deposition of nanometer sized films on complex nanostructures can compensate for the low absorption coefficient and inefficient light harvesting . To this regard, especially vapor phase techniques such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have been considered as promising techniques to fabricate high performance photoelectrodes as described in recent reviews . The ALD of iron oxide, however, is only known since the last decade.…”

Influence of film thickness on structural, optical, and electrical properties of spray deposited antimony doped SnO2 thin films

“…From the above equation (10), it is seen that the value of texture coefficient approaches unity for a randomly distributed sample, while T c (hkl) is greater than unity when the (h k l) plane is preferentially oriented. The The values of lattice constant, texture coefficient and crystalline size for antimony doped SnO 2 thin films are presented in Table 1.…”

“…One dominant market for TCO application is energy efficient glazing. Among the available TCOs, tin oxide (SnO 2 ) is a versatile material with a variety of applications such as low emissivity (low-E) optical windows for the solar spectrum [6][7][8][9], in stable resistors, touch-sensitive switches, photoelectrochemical water splitting, electro-chromic and digital displays, and gas sensors [10][11][12]. The optical transparency and electrical conductivity in TCOs is achieved by increasing the number of free charge carriers through intrinsic defects, such as oxygen vacancies, or through extrinsic dopants, typically higher valency metal cations [13][14].…”

Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C3N4)‐based nanosized heteroarrays: Promising materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting

“…It can be estimated that the total energy loss is about 0.8 eV. Consequently, the practical voltage required for PEC water splitting is ∼2.0 eV; thus an external bias is still needed even if the bandgap of photoelectrode materials is larger than 1.23 eV 50,64,68‐70 …”