A sensitivity analysis to assess the relative importance of improvements in electrocatalysts, light absorbers, and system geometry on the efficiency of solar-fuels generators

A solar-driven water-splitting cell is generally comprised of light absorbers, electrocatalysts, membrane separators and an electrolyte solution in a specic system geometry. The overall solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of such a system depends on the performance and materials properties of all the individual components as well as the design of the system. Signicant research efforts are being devoted to improving the performance of all of the system components, yet some improvements A sensitivity analysis has been performed for a variety of generic designs for solar-fuels generators. The analysis has revealed the relative importance of reductions in the overpotentials of electrocatalysts, of improvements in the materials properties of light absorbers, and of optimization in the system geometry for various different types of solar-fuels generators, while considering operation at a range of temperatures as well as under a variety of illumination intensities including up to 10-fold optical concentration.