Abstract
A review of the literature on solar-driven water photoelectrolysis cells employing semiconductor electrodes revealed that all devices tested suffered from three major problem areas: corrosion, poor sunlight absorption and external bias requirement. Only certain oxides are stable, but they are not good absorbers of sunlight and require biasing arrangements. The correlation between the external bias requirement and electron affinity of oxides was identified. A series of composite electrodes comprised of a stable wide band gap oxide (TiO 2, SrTiO 3, Al 2O 3) and a corrosion prone sunlight absorber (CdS, CdSe, ZnTe, Si) were fabricated and tested. Performance of heterostructure electrodes was shown to be limited either by pin hole problems or by potential barriers between the valence bands. These potential barriers can be minimized by using insulating oxide samples, with high work functions, and the photovoltaic properties of insulating SrTiO 3 are presented.
Published Version
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