Design and on-Sun Testing of Tandem III-V Photoelectrochemical Water-Splitting Systems
Authors: Ben-Naim Micha , Aldridge Chase , Steiner Myles A , Young James L. , Jaramillo Thomas F 
Published: December 2020

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting systems utilize sunlight to directly split water to hydrogen and oxygen, providing a storable chemical fuel.1 While a variety of semiconductor material systems have demonstrated unassisted solar hydrogen production, III-V semiconductors have shown the highest reported solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiencies and best device longevities.2–4 However, to date, work in the field has focused mostly on laboratory conditions, with few PEC systems having been tested outdoors using natural sunlight.

In this work, we design III-V semiconductor systems with a molybdenum disulfide catalyst layer and demonstrate unassisted PEC hydrogen generation on-sun. First, a window and capping layer in conjunction with the MoS2 catalytic protection layer are shown to improve the photovoltage and durability of a single-junction pn-GaInP2 photocathode over a MoS2/pn-GaInP2 photocathode. Translating this top cell architecture to a tandem absorber device allows for more meaningful outdoor measurements and improved unassisted water-splitting performance. Specifically, we employ a tandem, lattice-matched GaInP2/GaAs (1.8/1.4 eV bandgaps) system that has been developed with high quality fabrication and yields>10% STH efficiency.2,3

An on-sun photoreactor platform was designed for PEC benchmarking and material testing that incorporates a 2-axis solar tracker and gas collection system.5 Insolation and environmental instrumentation at the co-located NREL Solar Radiation Research Laboratory provide a full record of the solar irradiance and environmental conditions, allowing for more accurate benchmarking of on-sun performance. PEC device characteristics were probed via current-voltage and chronoamperometry measurements under both natural and simulated sunlight illumination, while material structure is probed by XPS and SEM.

The MoS2-protected tandem absorbers exhibit >10% STH efficiency under both laboratory and on-sun conditions. During a day of PEC testing under natural sunlight, >11 standard mL of hydrogen is generated with no applied bias. We will discuss challenges in catalyst and semiconductor stability and in cell design that limit PEC durability and hydrogen yield.

References:

(1) Seitz, L. C.; Chen, Z.; Forman, A. J.; Pinaud, B. A.; Benck, J. D.; Jaramillo, T. F. Modeling Practical Performance Limits of Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Based on the Current State of Materials Research. ChemSusChem
2014, 7 (5), 1372–1385.

(2) Young, J. L.; Steiner, M. A.; Döscher, H.; France, R. M.; Turner, J. A.; Deutsch, T. G. Direct Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion via Inverted Metamorphic Multi-Junction Semiconductor Architectures. Nat. Energy
2017, 2 (4), 17028.

(3) Khaselev, O.; Turner, J. A. A Monolithic Photovoltaic-Photoelectrochemical Device for Hydrogen Production via Water Splitting. Science
1998, 280 (5362), 425–427.

(4) Cheng, W.-H.; Richter, M. H.; May, M. M.; Ohlmann, J.; Lackner, D.; Dimroth, F.; Hannappel, T.; Atwater, H. A.; Lewerenz, H.-J. Monolithic Photoelectrochemical Device for Direct Water Splitting with 19% Efficiency. ACS Energy Lett.
2018, 3 (8), 1795–1800.

(5) HydroGEN Consortium. On-Sun Photoelectrochemical Solar-to-Hydrogen Benchmarking https://www.h2awsm.org/capabilities/sun-photoelectrochemical-solar-hydrogen-benchmarking.