Stable solar-driven oxidation of water by semiconducting photoanodes protected by transparent catalytic nickel oxide films

Reactively sputtered nickel oxide (NiO ₓ) films provide transparent, antireflective, electrically conductive, chemically stable coatings that also are highly active electrocatalysts for the oxidation of water to O ₂(g). These NiO ₓ coatings provide protective layers on a variety of technologically i...

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Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2015-03, Vol.112 (12), p.3612-3617
Main Authors: Sun, Ke, Saadi, Fadl H., Lichterman, Michael F., Hale, William G., Wang, Hsin-Ping, Zhou, Xinghao, Plymale, Noah T., Omelchenko, Stefan T., He, Jr-Hau, Papadantonakis, Kimberly M., Brunschwig, Bruce S., Lewis, Nathan S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cadmium telluride
Conductivity
electrocatalysis
INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
MATERIALS SCIENCE
nickel oxide
Oxidation
photoanode stabilization
Physical Sciences
Silicon
Simulation
solar-driven water oxidation
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Summary:Reactively sputtered nickel oxide (NiO ₓ) films provide transparent, antireflective, electrically conductive, chemically stable coatings that also are highly active electrocatalysts for the oxidation of water to O ₂(g). These NiO ₓ coatings provide protective layers on a variety of technologically important semiconducting photoanodes, including textured crystalline Si passivated by amorphous silicon, crystalline n-type cadmium telluride, and hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Under anodic operation in 1.0 M aqueous potassium hydroxide (pH 14) in the presence of simulated sunlight, the NiO ₓ films stabilized all of these self-passivating, high-efficiency semiconducting photoelectrodes for >100 h of sustained, quantitative solar-driven oxidation of water to O ₂(g). Significance The development of efficient artificial photosynthetic systems, designed to store solar energy in chemical bonds, requires the pairing of stable light-absorbing electrodes for both the oxidative and reductive half-reactions. The development of such systems has been hindered in part by the lack of semiconducting photoanodes that are stable under the conditions required for the production of O ₂(g) from water. We demonstrate herein that a reactively sputtered NiO ₓ layer provides a transparent, antireflective, conductive, chemically stable, inherently catalytic coating that stabilizes many efficient and technologically important semiconducting photoanodes under viable system operating conditions, thereby allowing the use of these materials in an integrated system for the sustainable, direct production of fuels from sunlight.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1423034112