Direct solar-to-hydrogen conversion via inverted metamorphic multi-junction semiconductor architectures

James L. Young, Myles A. Steiner, Henning Döscher, Ryan M. France, John A. Turner and Todd G. Deutsch ()
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James L. Young: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway
Myles A. Steiner: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway
Henning Döscher: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway
Ryan M. France: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway
John A. Turner: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway
Todd G. Deutsch: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway

Nature Energy, 2017, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Solar water splitting via multi-junction semiconductor photoelectrochemical cells provides direct conversion of solar energy to stored chemical energy as hydrogen bonds. Economical hydrogen production demands high conversion efficiency to reduce balance-of-systems costs. For sufficient photovoltage, water-splitting efficiency is proportional to the device photocurrent, which can be tuned by judicious selection and integration of optimal semiconductor bandgaps. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient, immersed water-splitting electrodes enabled by inverted metamorphic epitaxy and a transparent graded buffer that allows the bandgap of each junction to be independently varied. Voltage losses at the electrolyte interface are reduced by 0.55 V over traditional, uniformly p-doped photocathodes by using a buried p–n junction. Advanced on-sun benchmarking, spectrally corrected and validated with incident photon-to-current efficiency, yields over 16% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency with GaInP/GaInAs tandem absorbers, representing a 60% improvement over the classical, high-efficiency tandem III–V device.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.28

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