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Published September 1, 2015 | Published + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Interface engineering of the photoelectrochemical performance of Ni-oxide-coated n-Si photoanodes by atomic-layer deposition of ultrathin films of cobalt oxide

Abstract

Introduction of an ultrathin (2 nm) film of cobalt oxide (CoO_x) onto n-Si photoanodes prior to sputter-deposition of a thick multifunctional NiO_x coating yields stable photoelectrodes with photocurrent-onset potentials of ~−240 mV relative to the equilibrium potential for O2(g) evolution and current densities of ~28 mA cm^(−2) at the equilibrium potential for water oxidation when in contact with 1.0 M KOH(aq) under 1 sun of simulated solar illumination. The photoelectrochemical performance of these electrodes was very close to the Shockley diode limit for moderately doped n-Si(100) photoelectrodes, and was comparable to that of typical protected Si photoanodes that contained np+ buried homojunctions.

Additional Information

© 2015 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Received 30th May 2015, Accepted 15th July 2015, First published online 15 Jul 2015. This work was supported by 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 Number DE-SC0004993. UV-VIS spectroscopy, atomic-force microscopy, and Kelvin probe force microscopy were performed at the Molecular Materials Resource Center (MMRC) of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology. ACN was supported by a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. This work was additionally supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation under Award No. GBMF1225. Author contribution: X.Z., R.L., K.S., K.M.P, B.S.B and N.S.L designed the experiments and wrote the manuscript. X.Z., R.L., K.S., D.F., M.T.M, F.Y., S.T.O., F.H.S., A.C.N., S.Y. performed the experiments.

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Published - Zhou_2015p2644.pdf

Supplemental Material - c5ee01687h1_si.pdf

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