TY  - JOUR
AU  - Urbain, F.
AU  - Wilken, K.
AU  - Smirnov, V.
AU  - Astakhov, O.
AU  - Lambertz, A.
AU  - Becker, J.-P.
AU  - Rau, U.
AU  - Ziegler, J.
AU  - Kaiser, B.
AU  - Jaegermann, W.
AU  - Finger, F.
TI  - Development of Thin Film Amorphous Silicon Tandem Junction Based Photocathodes Providing High Open-Circuit Voltages for Hydrogen Production
JO  - International journal of photoenergy
VL  - 2014
IS  - Article ID 249317
SN  - 1687-529X
CY  - New York, NY [u.a.]
PB  - Hindawi Publ. Corp.
M1  - FZJ-2014-05263
SP  - 1 - 10
PY  - 2014
AB  - Hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film tandem solar cells (a-Si:H/a-Si:H) have been developed with focus on high open-circuit voltages for the direct application as photocathodes in photoelectrochemical water splitting devices. By temperature variation during deposition of the intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers the band gap energy of a-Si:H absorber layers, correlating with the hydrogen content of the material, can be adjusted and combined in a way that a-Si:H/a-Si:H tandem solar cells provide open-circuit voltages up to 1.87 V. The applicability of the tandem solar cells as photocathodes was investigated in a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) measurement set-up. With platinum as a catalyst, the a-Si:H/a-Si:H based photocathodes exhibit a high photocurrent onset potential of 1.76 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a photocurrent of 5.3 mA/cm2 at 0 V versus RHE (under halogen lamp illumination). Our results provide evidence that a direct application of thin film silicon based photocathodes fulfills the main thermodynamic requirements to generate hydrogen. Furthermore, the presented approach may provide an efficient and low-cost route to solar hydrogen production.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000339792500001
DO  - DOI:10.1155/2014/249317
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/171693
ER  -