Emergent Degradation Phenomena Demonstrated on Resilient, Flexible, and Scalable Integrated Photoelectrochemical Cells

Tobias A. Kistler, Guosong Zeng, James L. Young, Lien Chun Weng, Chase Aldridge, Keenan Wyatt, Myles A. Steiner, Oscar Solorzano, Frances A. Houle, Francesca M. Toma, Adam Z. Weber, Todd G. Deutsch, Nemanja Danilovic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting provides a pathway to generate sustainable clean fuels using the two most abundant resources on Earth: sunlight and water. Currently, most of the successful models of PEC cells are still fabricated on small scales near 1 cm2, which largely limits the mass deployment of solar-fuel production. Here, the scale-up to 8 cm2 of an integrated PEC (IPEC) device is demonstrated and its performance compared to a 1 cm2 IPEC cell, using state-of-the-art iridium and platinum catalysts with III–V photoabsorbers. The initial photocurrents at 1 sun are 8 and 7 mA cm−2 with degradation rates of 0.60 and 0.47 mA cm−2 day−1, during unbiased operation for the 1 and 8 cm2 devices, respectively. Evaluating under outdoor and indoor conditions at two U.S. National Laboratories reveals similar results, evidencing the reproducibility of this design's performance. Furthermore, the emerging degradation mechanisms during scale-up are investigated and the knowledge gained from this work will provide feedback to the broader community, since PEC device durability is a limiting factor in its potential future deployment.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number2002706
Number of pages10
JournalAdvanced Energy Materials
Volume10
Issue number48
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5900-77704

Keywords

  • durability
  • on-sun testing
  • PEC cell scale-up
  • reproducibility
  • water splitting

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Emergent Degradation Phenomena Demonstrated on Resilient, Flexible, and Scalable Integrated Photoelectrochemical Cells'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this