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Development of a-SiC Thin Film Photoelectrodes and Hybrid PV/a-SiC Devices for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

J. Hu ,
F. Zhu ,
A. Kunrath  and
N. Gaillard
J. Hu
Affiliation:
MVSystems, Inc., Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
F. Zhu
Affiliation:
MVSystems, Inc., Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
A. Kunrath
Affiliation:
MVSystems, Inc., Golden, Colorado 80401, USA
N. Gaillard
Affiliation:
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
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Abstract

In this communication, we report our efforts to develop amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) thin film photoelectrodes integrated with Si solar cells to form a monolithic, hybrid photovoltaic (PV)/a-SiC device capable of water splitting using sunlight as the only energy source. The main photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of both the a-SiC photoelectrode and complete hybrid device fabricated by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique at low temperature (≤ 200°C) are discussed. The surface modification with metal nanoparticles, which is critical to PEC performances of the hybrid device, is also described. We show that, with the an a-SiC photoelectrode of p-i-n configuration and a high performance silicon heterojunction solar cell as driver, the photocurrent of the hybrid PV/a-SiC device has reached ∼5 mA/cm2. Additionally, the durability of such device has reached ∼800 hours in acidic electrolyte. Finally, we describe a roadmap for achieving the solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of >10% by optimizing the device configuration.

Keywords

plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) (deposition)energy generationthin film
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1669: Symposium D – Materials for Photoelectrochemical and Photocatalytic Solar-Energy Harvesting and Storage , 2014 , mrss14-1669-d08-13
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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