Photoelectrochemical cells based on oxide semiconductors

The demand for steady and dependable power sources is very high in the field of sustainable energy because of the limited amount of fossil fuels reserves. Among several sustainable alternatives, solar energy may be the most efficient solution because it constitutes the largest renewable energy source. So far, the only practical way to store such large amounts of energy has been to use a chemical energy carrier likewise a fuel. In various solar energy to power conversion systems, the photoelectrochemical (PEC) splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen by the direct use of solar energy is an ideal process. It is a renewable method of hydrogen production integrated with solar energy absorption and water electrolysis using a single photoelectrode. Previous studies on photoelectrode films for PEC water splitting cells have been mainly focused on synthesizing oxide semiconductors with wide band gaps, such as TiO2(3.2eV), WO3(2.8eV), and Fe2O3(2.3eV). Unfortunately, these pristine oxide photoanodes without any catalysts have relatively low photocurrent densities because of the inherent limitation of insufficient visible light absorption due to the wide bandgap. Specifically, there is a tradeoff between high photocurrent and photoelectrochemical corrosion behavior, which is representative of figures of meritf or PEC materials.