Fully Textured Monolithic Sb 2 S 3 /Silicon Tandem for Unbiased and Stable Solar‐Driven Water Splitting Paired with Iodide Oxidation Reaction
Source abstract
Abstract
ABSTRACT Solar‐driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) production of chemical fuels such as hydrogen is a viable solution to address climate neutrality objectives. Development of a monolithic tandem PEC device consisting of ideal bandgap absorbers is of paramount importance to realize efficient artificial photosynthesis systems. Herein, we report monolithic integration of Sb 2 S 3 on textured silicon to realize a completely inorganic and fully vacuum processed multilayer PEC device with Ag/Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)/Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer (HIT) Si/ITO/Au/Sb 2 S 3 /NiO x architecture. Photoelectron spectroscopy and computational analysis show a staggered band alignment between Si and Sb 2 S 3 , emulating Z‐scheme charge transfer mechanism. We demonstrate a high performing and stable Sb 2 S 3 ‐Si monolithic tandem for PEC hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) coupled to iodide oxidation reaction (IOR). Under AM 1.5G illumination, the Sb 2 S 3 ‐Si monolithic tandem device achieves unassisted photocurrent density of 4.38 mA cm − 2 with faradaic efficiency of 97% for hydrogen, while maintaining ∼90% of its initial performance after 10 h of continuous operation. These results set a new benchmark for all inorganic monolithic tandems for efficient and sustainable solar‐to‐chemical conversion. This work unlocks the pathway for artificial photosynthesis systems comprising ideal bandgap photo absorbers.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques · Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films · TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Daejeon Republic of Korea
imec IUMAT Genk Belgium
UHasselt Institute for Materials Research (IUMAT) Hasselt Belgium
EnergyVille Genk Belgium
Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT) University of Antwerp Antwerpen Belgium
Research Group Sustainable Materials Engineering (SUME) Lab of Electrochemical and Surface Engineering (SURF) Vrije Universiteit Brussel Brussels Belgium
UHasselt Institute for Materials Research (IUMAT) Analytical & Microscopical Services (AMS) Hasselt Belgium
imec IUMAT Diepenbeek Belgium
Laboratory for Chemistry of Novel Materials University of Mons (UMONS) Mons Belgium
Funding
Ministry of Strategy and Finance · Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
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