Journal
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Volume 4, Issue 4, Pages 1311-1318Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c0ee00554a
Keywords
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Funding
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Energy [DE-FG36-08GO18006]
- Caltech Center for Sustainable Energy Research (CCSER)
- Dow Chemical Company
- NDSEG
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P-Type cuprous oxide (Cu2O) photoelectrodes prepared by the thermal oxidation of Cu foils exhibited open-circuit voltages in excess of 800 mV in nonaqueous regenerative photoelectrochemical cells. In contact with the decamethylcobaltocene(+/0) (Me10CoCp2+/0) redox couple, cuprous oxide yielded open-circuit voltage, V-oc, values of 820 mV and short-circuit current density, J(sc), values of 3.1 mA cm(-2) under simulated air mass 1.5 illumination. The energy-conversion efficiency of 1.5% was limited by solution absorption and optical reflection losses that reduced the short-circuit photocurrent density. Spectral response measurements demonstrated that the internal quantum yield approached unity in the 400-500 nm spectral range, but poor red response, attributable to bulk recombination, lowered the overall efficiency of the cell. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy indicated that the photoelectrodes had a high-quality cuprous oxide surface, and revealed no observable photocorrosion during operation in the nonaqueous electrolyte. The semiconductor/liquid junctions thus provide a noninvasive method to investigate the energy-conversion properties of cuprous oxide without the confounding factors of deleterious surface reactions.
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