(617eu) Understanding the Mechanisms and Key Parameters That Influence the Performance of Composite Semiconductor/Electrocatalyst Photoelectrodes

The integration of metal nanoparticle electrocatalysts with semiconductor photoelectrodes is ubiquitous in the field of photoelectrochemistry. For semiconductor photoelectrodes with long charge carrier diffusion lengths and good optical absorption, these metal nanoparticles hinder optical efficiency. Innovative semiconductor-electrocatalyst integration techniques can improve these efficiencies, but often introduce unforeseen enhancement/loss mechanisms.

In this contribution, we identify an integration technique to simultaneously improve the kinetic and optical efficiencies of planar silicon/platinum nanoparticle photoelectrodes. We also discuss our theoretical work on identifying key parameters in this system to explain overall device efficiency.