Efficient Solar-to-Hydrogen Production Materials and Devices

Renewable hydrogen production via water splitting needs to tackle the challenges of high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency and high stability of the materials and devices. For photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, semiconductor materials’ band gap, band edge, optoelectronic efficiency, and stability must be satisfied simultaneously to tackle the challenge.

With over five decades of research, different materials and devices have been studied and explored. STH efficiencies of metal oxides have been limited by issues related to the wide band gap, absorption, charge mobility, recombination, interfacial kinetics, etc., those the material class may be stable. Thin films (like III-V and CIGS) offer alternative pathways to efficient STH conversion, with stability remains an issue.

On the other hand, structures and configurations have been developed for unbiased PEC water splitting, mostly in laboratory scale. This presentation will address semiconductor materials, structures and devices developed for solar hydrogen production.