Solar Hydrogen Production by Amorphous Silicon Photocathodes Coated with a Magnetron Sputter Deposited Mo2C Catalyst

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• 作者：Carlos G. Morales-Guio ; Kerstin Thorwarth ; Bjoern Niesen ; Laurent Liardet ; J枚rg Patscheider ; Christophe Ballif ; Xile Hu
• 刊名：Journal of the American Chemical Society
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：June 10, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：137
• 期：22
• 页码：7035-7038
• 全文大小：289K
• ISSN：1520-5126

文摘

Coupling of Earth-abundant hydrogen evolution catalysts to photoabsorbers is crucial for the production of hydrogen fuel using sunlight. In this work, we demonstrate the use of magnetron sputtering to deposit Mo₂C as an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst onto surface-protected amorphous silicon (a-Si) photoabsorbers. The a-Si/Mo₂C photocathode evolves hydrogen under simulated solar illumination in strongly acidic and alkaline electrolytes. Onsets of photocurrents are observed at potentials as positive as 0.85 V vs RHE. Under AM 1.5G (1 sun) illumination, the photocathodes reach current densities of 鈭?1.2 mA cm^鈥? at the reversible hydrogen potential in 0.1 M H₂SO₄ and 1.0 M KOH. The high photovoltage and low-cost of the Mo₂C/a-Si assembly make it a promising photocathode for solar hydrogen production.