Semi-Monolithic Multijunction Devices for Unassisted Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting
Authors: Outlaw-Spruell Kai , Muzzillo Christopher , Zhu Kai , Gaillard Nicolas 
Published: December 2024

Although foundational to multi-junction (MJ) photoelectrochemical (PEC) device synthesis, monolithic integration presents major limitations in process compatibility. Consequently, conductive adhesive-based interconnection scheme emerged as a suitable method to overcome limitations and to integrate incompatible material classes into MJ devices without compromising the integrity of the constituent layers. As the conductive adhesive generally employ a polymer matrix, the conductivity of this composite material depends on the conductive filler material. Among which, a core-shell type silver coated PMMA (Ag-PMMA) conductive microsphere filler has gained significant interest in the PV and PEC community due to its ability to exhibit reliable out-of-plane electrical conductivity (0.1 Ω-cm2) and good optical transparency (T > 90%), as we demonstrate for an epoxy-based transparent conductive composite (TCC) consisting of low particle loading (0.1 - 5 vol%).

By implementation of the Ag-PMMA based TCC paired with a device exfoliation method, further referred to as semi-monolithic integration, independently processed substrate-grown single junction (SJ) devices were successively bonded and transferred via exfoliation onto a single host substrate to create a MJ device. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we constructed the world’s first whole-chalcopyrite triple junction MJ device comprising 1.13 eV and 1.44 eV Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and 1.85 eV CuGa3Se5 sub-cells, with the TCC acting as the recombination layer between each sub-cell. The device exhibited an open circuit voltage of 1.85 V and is capable of splitting water with an STH efficiency of 3% in a PV-electrolysis configuration. Furthermore, a TCC-based bifacial MJ device comprising 1.7eV perovskite and 1.1eV Cu(In,Ga)Se2 sub-cells exhibited STH efficiency exceeding 10% in a PV-electrolysis configuration.

Although the use of Ag-PMMA based TCC has shown to be an effective approach to prepare MJ devices, mechanical and electrical design and optimization is required to reliably appropriate the TCC as an optoelectronic device interconnect and to scale the semi-monolithic integration method. In the context of mechanical optimization, it has been shown that the degree of deformation of conductive microsphere filler is a key factor in establishing electrical connections. Up until now, the load-deformation characteristic of a single Ag-PMMA microsphere has not been measured. As such, we present in this communication a mechanical model based on measured load-deformation characteristics of a single Ag-PMMA microsphere to facilitate a spring model to better predict the deformation of multi-particle systems with respect to applied load. Furthermore, a finite element electrical model is implemented to determine the effects of electrical contacts across the sub-cell emitter layer and the resulting charge transport resistive losses. Hence, we demonstrate the critical factors influencing the quality of TCC as an anisotropic electrical interconnection layer, and provide a computational mechanical and electrical model to understand and mitigate parasitic resistive losses.