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Published April 11, 2013 | Supplemental Material + Published
Journal Article Open

Electrical and Photoelectrochemical Properties of WO_3/Si Tandem Photoelectrodes

Abstract

Tungsten trioxide (WO_3) has been investigated as a photoanode for water oxidation reactions in acidic aqueous conditions. Though WO_3 is not capable of performing unassisted solar-driven water splitting, WO_3 can in principle be coupled with a low band gap semiconductor, such as Si, to produce a stand-alone, tandem photocathode/photoanode p-Si/n-WO_3 system for solar fuels production. Junctions between Si and WO_3, with and without intervening ohmic contacts, were therefore prepared and investigated in detail. Thin films of n-WO_3 that were prepared directly on p-Si and n-Si substrates exhibited an onset of photocurrent at a potential consistent with expectations based on the band-edge alignment of these two materials predicted by Andersen theory. However, n-WO_3 films deposited on Si substrates exhibited much lower anodic photocurrent densities (0.02 mA cm^(–2) at 1.0 V vs SCE) than identically prepared n-WO_3 films that were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates (0.45 mA cm^(–2) at 1.0 V vs SCE). Deposition of n-WO_3 onto a thin layer of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) that had been deposited on a Si substrate yielded anodic photocurrent densities that were comparable to those observed for n-WO_3 films that had been deposited onto FTO-coated glass. An increased photovoltage was observed when an n-Si/ITO Schottky junction was formed in series with the n-WO_3 film, relative to when the WO_3 was deposited directly onto the Si. Hence, inclusion of the ITO layer allowed for tandem photoelectrochemical devices to be prepared using n-WO_3 and n-Si as the light absorbers.

Additional Information

© 2013 American Chemical Society. Received: December 5, 2012; Revised: February 22, 2013; Published: March 15, 2013. Published In Issue April 11, 2013. We acknowledge the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grant W911NF-09-2-0011 for support of R.H.C. and N.S.L. and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, supported through the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Award DE-SC0004993, for support of M.S., B.S.B., and N.S.L. We also acknowledge BP and the Molecular Materials Research Center of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology for support.

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Published - jp311947x.pdf

Supplemental Material - jp311947x_si_001.pdf

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Created:
August 19, 2023
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October 23, 2023