Photovoltaic cells excel at directly converting of solar energy to electricity however they do not directly produce stored energy or fuels that account for more than 75% of current energy use.  Direct photoelectrolysis of water has the advantage of converting solar energy directly to hydrogen, an ideal non-carbon and nonpolluting energy carrier, by replacing both a photovoltaic array and an electrolysis unit with one potentially inexpensive device. Unfortunately no materials are currently known with the required properties to efficiently photoelectrolyze water that are stable under illumination in electrolytes for many years.  Nanostructured semiconducting metal oxides could potentially fulfill these requirements, making them the most promising materials for solar water photoelectrolysis, however no oxide semiconductor has yet been discovered with all the required properties.  We have developed a simple, high-throughput combinatorial approach to prepare and screen many complex oxides for water photoelectrolysis activity.   Several promising and unexpected compositions have been identified.  However discovery of new compositions is at most half the battle, since understanding and optimization of the structural and electronic properties of the materials is needed to develop these semiconductors to the point of high conversion efficeincies in a real device.  Problems requiring the input of theorists in the feedback loops between discovery, optimization and understanding will be discussed.

New oxide semiconducotrs for water photoelectrolysis: Experimental progress and theoretical issues

246th National Meeting (2013)

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