Semiconductor–Liquid Junction: From Fundamentals to Solar Fuel Generating Structures

Abstract

Historically, the investigation of the solid–liquid interface has seen four major breakthroughs: van Troostwijk and Deiman reported the first splitting of water in 1789 using a spark discharge source [1]. Becquerel observed the photoelectric effect at the solid–liquid interface in 1839 [2] and, 183 years after the first water splitting, Fujishima and Honda reported the light-induced dissociation of water at a TiO2 rutile electrode [3]. Three years later, Gerischer published an article demonstrating that a rectifying contact can be realized at the semiconductor–redox electrolyte junction upon judicious choice of the semiconductor–electrolyte pairing [4]. This latter work laid the basis for all present energy-converting electrochemical devices for the conversion of sunlight into electricity or fuels at the solid–liquid interface [5]. Numerous reports followed after this inception of photoelectrochemical energy conversion [6–16] which included the development of regenerative photoelectrochemical solar cells [17–21], water splitting half-cells [22, 23], excitonic solar cells [24], and the dye sensitization cell of Graetzel [25, 26] which represents the first photoelectrochemical solar cell that has been realized as a technical device.

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