TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating low-cost earth-abundant co-catalysts with encapsulated perovskite solar cells for efficient and stable overall solar water splitting
AU - Chen, Hongjun
AU - Zhang, Meng
AU - Tran-Phu, Thanh
AU - Bo, Renheng
AU - Shi, Lei
AU - Di Bernardo, Iolanda
AU - Bing, Jueming
AU - Pan, Jian
AU - Singh, Simrjit
AU - Lipton-Duffin, Josh
AU - Wu, Tom
AU - Amal, Rose
AU - Huang, Shujuan
AU - Ho-Baillie, Anita W. Y.
AU - Tricoli, Antonio
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Metal halide perovskite solar cells have an appropriate bandgap (1.5–1.6 eV), and thus output voltage (>1 V), to directly drive solar water splitting. Despite significant progress, their moisture sensitivity still hampers their application for integrated monolithic devices. Furthermore, the prevalence of the use of noble metals as co-catalysts for existing perovskite-based devices undermines their use for low-cost H2 production. Here, a monolithic architecture for stable perovskite-based devices with earth-abundant co-catalysts is reported, demonstrating an unassisted overall solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 8.54%. The device layout consists of two monolithically encapsulated perovskite (FA0.80MA0.15Cs0.05PbI2.55Br0.45) solar cells with low-cost earth-abundant CoP and FeNi(OH)x co-catalysts as the photocathode and photoanode, respectively. The CoP-based photocathode demonstrates more than 17 h of continuous operation, with a photocurrent density of 12.4 mA cm−2 at 0 V and an onset potential as positive as ≈1 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The FeNi(OH)x-based photoanode achieves a photocurrent of 11 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V versus RHE for more than 13 h continuous operation. These excellent stability and performance demonstrate the potential for monolithic integration of perovskite solar cells and low-cost earth-abundant co-catalysts for efficient direct solar H2 production.
AB - Metal halide perovskite solar cells have an appropriate bandgap (1.5–1.6 eV), and thus output voltage (>1 V), to directly drive solar water splitting. Despite significant progress, their moisture sensitivity still hampers their application for integrated monolithic devices. Furthermore, the prevalence of the use of noble metals as co-catalysts for existing perovskite-based devices undermines their use for low-cost H2 production. Here, a monolithic architecture for stable perovskite-based devices with earth-abundant co-catalysts is reported, demonstrating an unassisted overall solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 8.54%. The device layout consists of two monolithically encapsulated perovskite (FA0.80MA0.15Cs0.05PbI2.55Br0.45) solar cells with low-cost earth-abundant CoP and FeNi(OH)x co-catalysts as the photocathode and photoanode, respectively. The CoP-based photocathode demonstrates more than 17 h of continuous operation, with a photocurrent density of 12.4 mA cm−2 at 0 V and an onset potential as positive as ≈1 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The FeNi(OH)x-based photoanode achieves a photocurrent of 11 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V versus RHE for more than 13 h continuous operation. These excellent stability and performance demonstrate the potential for monolithic integration of perovskite solar cells and low-cost earth-abundant co-catalysts for efficient direct solar H2 production.
KW - earth-abundant co-catalyst
KW - monolithic photoelectrode
KW - perovskite solar cell
KW - solar-to-hydrogen efficiency
KW - solar water splitting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097143317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190101864
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT200100939
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP200103420
U2 - 10.1002/adfm.202008245
DO - 10.1002/adfm.202008245
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097143317
SN - 1616-3028
VL - 31
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
IS - 4
M1 - 2008245
ER -