%0 Journal Article
%A Turan, Bugra
%A Becker, Jan-Philipp
%A Urbain, Félix
%A Finger, Friedhelm
%A Rau, Uwe
%A Haas, Stefan
%T Upscaling of integrated photoelectrochemical water-splitting devices to large areas
%J Nature Communications
%V 7
%@ 2041-1723
%C London
%I Nature Publishing Group
%M FZJ-2016-05161
%P 12681
%D 2016
%X Photoelectrochemical water splitting promises both sustainable energy generation and energy storage in the form of hydrogen. However, the realization of this vision requires laboratory experiments to be engineered into a large-scale technology. Up to now only few concepts for scalable devices have been proposed or realized. Here we introduce and realize a concept which, by design, is scalable to large areas and is compatible with multiple thin-film photovoltaic technologies. The scalability is achieved by continuous repetition of a base unit created by laser processing. The concept allows for independent optimization of photovoltaic and electrochemical part. We demonstrate a fully integrated, wireless device with stable and bias-free operation for 40 h. Furthermore, the concept is scaled to a device area of 64 cm2 comprising 13 base units exhibiting a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 3.9%. The concept and its successful realization may be an important contribution towards the large-scale application of artificial photosynthesis.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000385380100001
%$ pmid:27601181
%R 10.1038/ncomms12681
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/819518