Implementation of Multijunction Solar Cells in Integrated Devices for the Generation of Solar Fuels

Smirnov, Vladimir; Welter, Katharina; Finger, F.; Urbain, Félix; Morante, Joan Ramón; Kaiser, Bernhard; Jaegermann, Wolfram

doi:10.1002/9781119460008.ch9

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 86 publications

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“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] As a result of all these attempts, integrated solar-driven water-splitting devices have been developed and tested for hydrogen production on a laboratory scale. [14][15][16][17][18][19] Although, these experimental devices have entered the stage of commercialization, their mass fabrication has not been reached. The reason for that should be sought for in the properties of available photoanode materials and can be related to inefficient solar energy-to-hydrogen conversion processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Titanium Dioxide Thin Films with Controlled Stoichiometry for Photoelectrochemical Systems

Radecka

Brudnik

Kulinowski

et al. 2019

Journal of Elec Materi

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The electrical resistivity of thin film metal oxide photoanodes in the photoelectrochemical cells, PEC, for hydrogen generation, the importance of which should not be neglected in the design and construction of water-splitting devices, is found to be affected by the departure from stoichiometric composition and film thickness. Here, we propose to use TiO 2 /ITO photoanodes for photoelectrochemical cells. The TiO 2Àx thin films with x indicating a departure from the stoichiometric composition have been prepared by dc magnetron sputtering with the deposition rate controlled by the optical emission spectroscopy, OES. Photoanode properties were determined by scanning electron microscopy, SEM, atomic force mocroscopy, AFM, Raman spectroscopy, transmittance and reflectance measurements over uv/vis/nir wavelength ranges, impedance spectroscopy, Mott-Schottky plots, and photocurrent versus voltage dependence in the dark and under white light illumination. The contributions of the charge carrier concentration and mobility to the enhanced photocurrent of the PEC have been determined and correlated to the varying film stoichiometry and thickness, respectively.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Titanium Dioxide Thin Films with Controlled Stoichiometry for Photoelectrochemical Systems

Radecka

Brudnik

Kulinowski

et al. 2019

Journal of Elec Materi

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting using Adapted Silicon Based Multi-Junction Solar Cell Structures: Development of Solar Cells and Catalysts, Upscaling of Combined Photovoltaic-Electrochemical Devices and Performance Stability

Finger

Welter

Urbain

et al. 2019

Zeitschrift Für Physikalische Chemie

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Thin film silicon based multi-junction solar cells were developed for application in combined photovoltaic electrochemical systems for hydrogen production from water splitting. Going from single, tandem, triple up to quadruple junctions, we cover a range of open circuit voltages from 0.5 V to 2.8 V at photovoltaic cell (PV) efficiencies above 13%. The solar cells were combined with electrochemical (EC) cells in integrated devices from 0.5 cm2 to 64 cm2. Various combinations of catalyst pairs for the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction side (OER and HER) were investigated with respect to electrochemical activity, stability, cost and – important for the integrated device – optical quality of the metal catalyst on the HER side as back reflector of the attached solar cell. The combined PV-EC systems were further investigated under varied operation temperatures and illumination conditions for estimation of outdoor performance and annual fuel production yield. For 0.5 cm2 size combined systems a maximum solar-to-hydrogen efficiency ηSTH = 9.5% was achieved under standard test conditions. For device upscaling to 64 cm2 various concepts of contact interconnects for reduced current and fill factor loss when using large size solar cells were investigated. To replace high performance noble metal based catalyst pairs (Pt/RuO2 or Pt/IrOx), more abundant and cheaper NiMo (HER) and NiFeOx (OER) compounds were prepared via electrodeposition. With the NiMo/NiFeOx catalyst pair we obtained ηSTH = 5.1% for a 64 cm2 size solar cell which was even better than the performance of the Pt/IrO2 system (ηSTH = 4.8%). In simulated day-night cycle operation the NiMo/NiFeOx catalyst pair showed excellent stability over several days. The experimental studies were successfully accompanied by simulation of the entire PV-EC device using a series connection model which allowed studies and pre-estimations of device performance by varying individual components such as catalysts, electrolytes, or solar cells. Based on these results we discuss the prospects and challenges of integrated PV-EC devices on large area for hydrogen and solar fuel production in general.

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Implementation of Multijunction Solar Cells in Integrated Devices for the Generation of Solar Fuels

Cited by 2 publications

References 86 publications

Titanium Dioxide Thin Films with Controlled Stoichiometry for Photoelectrochemical Systems

Titanium Dioxide Thin Films with Controlled Stoichiometry for Photoelectrochemical Systems

Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting using Adapted Silicon Based Multi-Junction Solar Cell Structures: Development of Solar Cells and Catalysts, Upscaling of Combined Photovoltaic-Electrochemical Devices and Performance Stability

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