Crystalline TiO2 protective layer with graded oxygen defects for efficient and stable silicon-based photocathode

Jianyun Zheng, Yanhong Lyu, Ruilun Wang, Chao Xie, Huaijuan Zhou (), San Ping Jiang and Shuangyin Wang ()
Additional contact information
Jianyun Zheng: Hunan University
Yanhong Lyu: Hunan University
Ruilun Wang: Hunan University
Chao Xie: Hunan University
Huaijuan Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
San Ping Jiang: Curtin University
Shuangyin Wang: Hunan University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The trade-offs between photoelectrode efficiency and stability significantly hinder the practical application of silicon-based photoelectrochemical devices. Here, we report a facile approach to decouple the trade-offs of silicon-based photocathodes by employing crystalline TiO2 with graded oxygen defects as protection layer. The crystalline protection layer provides high-density structure and enhances stability, and at the same time oxygen defects allow the carrier transport with low resistance as required for high efficiency. The silicon-based photocathode with black TiO2 shows a limiting current density of ~35.3 mA cm−2 and durability of over 100 h at 10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M NaOH electrolyte, while none of photoelectrochemical behavior is observed in crystalline TiO2 protection layer. These findings have significant suggestions for further development of silicon-based, III–V compounds and other photoelectrodes and offer the possibility for achieving highly efficient and durable photoelectrochemical devices.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05580-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05580-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05580-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().