Evaluation of Pt, Ni, and Ni–Mo electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution on crystalline Si electrodes
Abstract
The dark electrocatalytic and light photocathodic hydrogen evolution properties of Ni, Ni–Mo alloys, and Pt on Si electrodes have been measured, to assess the viability of earth-abundant electrocatalysts for integrated, semiconductor coupled fuel formation. In the dark, the activities of these catalysts deposited on degenerately doped p^+-Si electrodes increased in the order Ni < Ni–Mo ≤ Pt. Ni–Mo deposited on degenerately doped Si microwires exhibited activity that was very similar to that of Pt deposited by metal evaporation on planar Si electrodes. Under 100 mW cm^(−2) of Air Mass 1.5 solar simulation, the energy conversion efficiencies of p-type Si/catalyst photoelectrodes ranged from 0.2–1%, and increased in the order Ni ≈ Ni–Mo < Pt, due to somewhat lower photovoltages and photocurrents for p-Si/Ni–Mo relative to p-Si/Ni and p-Si/Pt photoelectrodes. Deposition of the catalysts onto microwire arrays resulted in higher apparent catalytic activities and similar photoelectrode efficiencies than were observed on planar p-Si photocathodes, despite lower light absorption by p-Si in the microwire structures.
Additional Information
© 2011 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Received 19 Apr 2011, Accepted 22 Jun 2011. First published on the web 01 Aug 2011. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Powering the Planet Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI), Grants CHE-0802907 and CHE-0947829, and by the Molecular Materials Research Center of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology. The authors would like to acknowledge Joseph Beardslee for assistance with XPS analysis. JRM would like to thank the Department of Energy, Office of Science, for a graduate research fellowship. SWB gratefully acknowledges fellowship support from the Kavli Nanoscience Institute.Attached Files
Published - McKone2011p15897Energ_Environ_Sci.pdf
Supplemental Material - c1ee01488a.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 25490
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110929-104011152
- NSF
- CHE-0802907
- NSF
- CHE-0947829
- Caltech Beckman Institute
- Kavli Nanoscience Institute
- Created
-
2011-09-30Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Kavli Nanoscience Institute, CCI Solar Fuels