TY - JOUR
T1 - Overcoming Phase-Purity Challenges in Complex Metal Oxide Photoelectrodes
T2 - A Case Study of CuBi2O4
AU - Gottesman, Ronen
AU - Levine, Igal
AU - Schleuning, Markus
AU - Irani, Rowshanak
AU - Abou-Ras, Daniel
AU - Dittrich, Thomas
AU - Friedrich, Dennis
AU - van de Krol, Roel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Advanced Energy Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
PY - 2021/3/18
Y1 - 2021/3/18
N2 - The widespread application of solar-water-splitting for energy conversion depends on the progress of photoelectrodes that uphold stringent criteria from photoabsorber materials. After investigating almost all possible elemental and binary semiconductors, the search must be expanded to complex materials. Yet, high structural control of these materials will become more challenging with an increasing number of elements. Complex metal-oxides offer unique advantages as photoabsorbers. However, practical fabrication conditions when using glass-based transparent conductive-substrates with low thermal-stability impedes the use of common synthesis routes of high-quality metal-oxide thin-film photoelectrodes. Nevertheless, rapid thermal processing (RTP) enables heating at higher temperatures than the thermal stabilities of the substrates, circumventing this bottleneck. Reported here is an approach to overcome phase-purity challenges in complex metal-oxides, showing the importance of attaining a single-phase multinary compound by exploring large growth parameter spaces, achieved by employing a combinatorial approach to study CuBi2O4, a prime candidate photoabsorber. Pure CuBi2O4 photoelectrodes are synthesized after studying the relationship between the crystal-structures, synthesis conditions, RTP, and properties over a range of thicknesses. Single-phase photoelectrodes exhibit higher fill-factors, photoconversion efficiencies, longer carrier lifetimes, and increased stability than nonpure photoelectrodes. These findings show the impact of combinatorial approaches alongside radiative heating techniques toward discovering highly efficient multinary photoabsorbers.
AB - The widespread application of solar-water-splitting for energy conversion depends on the progress of photoelectrodes that uphold stringent criteria from photoabsorber materials. After investigating almost all possible elemental and binary semiconductors, the search must be expanded to complex materials. Yet, high structural control of these materials will become more challenging with an increasing number of elements. Complex metal-oxides offer unique advantages as photoabsorbers. However, practical fabrication conditions when using glass-based transparent conductive-substrates with low thermal-stability impedes the use of common synthesis routes of high-quality metal-oxide thin-film photoelectrodes. Nevertheless, rapid thermal processing (RTP) enables heating at higher temperatures than the thermal stabilities of the substrates, circumventing this bottleneck. Reported here is an approach to overcome phase-purity challenges in complex metal-oxides, showing the importance of attaining a single-phase multinary compound by exploring large growth parameter spaces, achieved by employing a combinatorial approach to study CuBi2O4, a prime candidate photoabsorber. Pure CuBi2O4 photoelectrodes are synthesized after studying the relationship between the crystal-structures, synthesis conditions, RTP, and properties over a range of thicknesses. Single-phase photoelectrodes exhibit higher fill-factors, photoconversion efficiencies, longer carrier lifetimes, and increased stability than nonpure photoelectrodes. These findings show the impact of combinatorial approaches alongside radiative heating techniques toward discovering highly efficient multinary photoabsorbers.
KW - CuBiO
KW - complex metal oxides
KW - pulsed laser deposition
KW - radiative heating
KW - rapid thermal processing
KW - solar water splitting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099840763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/aenm.202003474
DO - 10.1002/aenm.202003474
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AN - SCOPUS:85099840763
SN - 1614-6832
VL - 11
JO - Advanced Energy Materials
JF - Advanced Energy Materials
IS - 11
M1 - 2003474
ER -