The future of clear energy supply heavily depends on innovative breakthroughs concerning the design of efficient systems for the conversion and storage of solar energy. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is one promising solution in which energy collection and water electrolysis are mated into one system. One of the most efficient PEC systems demonstrated to date is the III-V PEC/PV tandem concept pioneered at NREL that suffers from known stability issues. Here, we report studies of a p-GaInP2 photocathode protected via a TiO2 layer deposited via atomic layer deposition. With an appropriate TiO2 layer thickness as well as molecular HER catalyst (cobaltoxime) adsorbed to the TiO2 surface, the resulting photoelectrode mediates photo-driven H2 production with a current density of ~10 mA∙cm-2 at a potential of 0 V vs. RHE under 1 sun illumination at pH 13. Whereas the photocurrent of a bare GaInP2 photoelectrode rapidly degrades, that of a GaInP2-TiO2-catalyst electrode showed a relatively minor comparable to that of a GaInP2-TiO2-Pt particle control.

A p-GaInP2 photoelectrode for water reduction stabilized with TiO2 and a molecular cobalt catalyst

249th National Meeting (2015)

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