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Modeling Enhanced Performances by Optical Nanostructures in Water-Splitting Photoelectrodes

Driencourt, Luc and Gallinet, Benjamin and Housecroft, Catherine E. and Fricke, Sören and Constable, Edwin C.. (2021) Modeling Enhanced Performances by Optical Nanostructures in Water-Splitting Photoelectrodes. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125. pp. 7010-7021.

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Abstract

Material nanostructuring and optical phenomena on a nanoscale such as plasmonic effects and light scattering have been widely studied for improving the solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting electrodes. In this work, we report a method for analyzing the contributions of optical effects from nanostructures for enhancing the PEC performances. Electromagnetic simulations are performed for the precise calculation of generated power density in a semiconductor material. In addition, the transport and transfer of photogenerated charges to the electrolyte are modeled by using the conservation of minority carriers. The surface loss parameter, diffusion length, and doping density of the semiconductor material are determined by fitting the model to an incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) curve experimentally measured on the bare reference photoelectrode. These parameters are then used to compute the IPCE spectra of the photoelectrode for which an optical enhancement strategy is used, such as nanostructuring or plasmonics. The method is validated using published experimental data. The calculated IPCE enhancement ratio originating from optical effects is in quantitative agreement with experimental observations for both periodic and random optical structures. The model can be used to study in detail the key enhancement mechanisms for the IPCE from optical nanostructures and, in particular, discriminate between optical and nonoptical (e.g., catalytic) enhancement.
Faculties and Departments:05 Faculty of Science > Departement Chemie > Former Organization Units Chemistry > Anorganische Chemie (Constable)
05 Faculty of Science > Departement Chemie > Former Organization Units Chemistry > Anorganische Chemie (Housecroft)
UniBasel Contributors:Housecroft, Catherine Elizabeth and Driencourt, Luc
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:American Chemical Society
ISSN:1932-7447
e-ISSN:1932-7455
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
Identification Number:
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:16 Apr 2021 14:03
Deposited On:16 Apr 2021 14:03

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