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...

Optoelectronic properties of hematite (α-Fe2O3) as a photoanode and the required over-potential in photo-assisted water splitting has been improved by presence of Co-Pi on its surface. In order to increase the lifetime of the photogenerated holes and lower the applied bias, cobalt-phosphate (Co-Pi) on nanostructured α-Fe2O3 by electrodeposition was de...

Various tandem cell configurations have been reported for highly efficient and spontaneous hydrogen production from photoelectrochemical solar water splitting. However, there is a contradiction between two main requirements of a front photoelectrode in a tandem cell configuration, namely, high transparency and high photocurrent density. Here we demonstrate a simple yet highly effective method t...

Z-scheme water splitting is a promising approach based on high-performance photocatalysis by harvesting broadband solar energy. Its efficiency depends on the well-defined interfaces between two semiconductors for the charge kinetics and their exposed surfaces for chemical reactions. Herein, we report a facile cation-exchange approach to obtain compounds with both properties without the need for...

Efficient conversion of solar energy into useful chemical fuels is a major scientific challenge. Water-splitting dyesensitized photoelectrochemical cells (WS-DSPECs) utilize mesoporous oxide supports sensitized with molecular dyes and catalysts to drive the water-splitting reaction. Despite a growing body of work, the overall efficiencies of WS-DSPECs remain low, in large part because of poor e...

Copper chalcopyrite is a promising candidate for a photocathode material for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting because of its high half-cell solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency (HC-STH), relatively simple and low-cost preparation process, and chemical stability. This paper reviews recent advances in copper chalcopyrite photocathodes. The PEC properties of copper chalcopyrite photoc...

Light-driven water oxidation is an essential step for conversion of sunlight into storable chemical fuels. Fujishima and Honda reported the first example of photoelectrochemical water oxidation in 1972. In their system, TiO2 was irradiated with ultraviolet light, producing oxygen at the anode and hydrogen at a platinum cathode. Inspired by this system, more recent work has focused on functional...

the search for stable binary and ternary alloys, [ 1 ] batteries, [ 2 ] carbon capture and storage, [ 3 ] photovoltaics, [ 4,5 ] dye sensitized solar cells, [ 6 ] and water splitting materials [ 7,8 ] has been guided by computational studies. The huge amount of data produced during these studies has been collected in several databases, for example, the Materials Project database, [ 9 ] the AFLO...

Cu2ZnSnS4, based on abundant and environmental friendly elements and with a direct band gap of 1.5 eV, is a main candidate material for solar energy conversion through both photovoltaics and photocatalysis. We detail here the synthesis of quasi-spherical Cu2ZnSnS4 nanoparticles with unprecedented narrow size distributions. We further detail their use as seeds to produce CZTS-Au and CZTS-Pt hete...

This paper describes the design, characterization, and utilization of branched TiO2 nanoarrays sensitized with CdS quantum dots as anodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting. The remarkable photocurrent density (∼4 mA cm(-2) at a potential of 0 V versus Ag/AgCl) and high solar to hydrogen efficiency of the materials obtained were ascribed to the novel branched nanostructure and efficient e...