Sputtered Stainless Steel on Silicon Photoanode for Stable Seawater Splitting in Photoelectrochemical Flow Cell

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) seawater splitting is a promising method for the direct utilization of solar energy and abundant seawater resources for hydrogen production. Photoelectrodes are susceptible to various ions in seawater and complicated competitive reactions, resulting in the failure of photoelectrodes. This paper proposes the design and fabrication of different sputtered stainless steel (SS) films deposited on silicon photoanodes, completely isolating the electrolytes and semiconductor substrate. Upon coupling with the PEC flow cell, the back-illuminated photoanode coated with 316 SS cocatalyst achieves stable operation for 70 h in natural seawater with a highly alkaline KOH (30 wt.%, 7.64 mol/L) electrolyte due to the remarkable protection effect of the substrate from stainless steel, while the PEC seawater splitting system achieves a record hydrogen production rate of 600 μmol/(h·cm2). An appropriate Ni/Fe ratio in the SS ensures remarkable oxygen evolution activity, while chromic oxide ensures the effective anticorrosion effect by adjusting the microenvironment of the photoanodes. Moreover, fabricating PEC flow cells with photoanodes coated with SS cocatalysts are a viable strategy for PEC seawater splitting.