• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

Recent industrialization has led to a high demand for the use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the need for producing hydrogen and its utilization is essential for a sustainable society. For an eco-friendly future technology, photoelectrochemical water splitting using solar energy has proven promising amongst many other candidates. With this technique, semiconductors can be used as photocatalysts to generate electrons by light absorption, resulting in the reduction of hydrogen ions. The photocatalysts must be chemically stable, economically inexpensive and be able to utilize a wide range of light. From this perspective, cuprous oxide($Cu_2O$) is a promising p-type semiconductor because of its appropriate band gap. However, a major hindrance to the use of $Cu_2O$ is its instability at the potential in which hydrogen ion is reduced. In this study, gold is used as a bottom electrode during electrodeposition to obtain a preferential growth along the (111) plane of $Cu_2O$ while imperfections of the $Cu_2O$ thin films are removed. This study investigates the photoelectrochemical properties of $Cu_2O$. However, severe photo-induced corrosion impedes the use of $Cu_2O$ as a photoelectrode. Two candidates, $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$, are selected for the passivation layer on $Cu_2O$ by by considering the Pourbaix-diagram. $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$ passivation layers are deposited by atomic layer deposition(ALD) and a sputtering process, respectively. The investigation of the photoelectrochemical properties confirmed that $SnO_2$ is a good passivation layer for $Cu_2O$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1262-1268
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• 1995

Photoelectrochemical properties of p-GaAs electrode have been investigated. I-V characteristic shows that the cathodic photocurrent is observed at -0.7 V vs. SCE. The photoresponse at near 870~880nm wavelength indicates that the photogenerated carriers contibuted to the observed current. The maximum converson efficiency of 35% is obtained for a Xe lamp light source at 400nm. In C-V relation, capacitance peaks appeared at the frequencies of 100Hz and 300Hz due to the activation of the interfacial states which exist at the energy level corresponding to the one-third of the GaAs band gap. The difference of about 1.1V between flatband potential (Vfb) from the Mott-Schottky method and onset voltage from I-V curve is observed due to the trap of carriers at the interfacial states in the boundary between GaAs and electrolyte. In case of WO3 deposited p-GaAs electrode, higher positive onset current and photocurent density are obtained. This can be explained by the fact that carriers are generated by light penetrated into the WO3 thin flm as well as p-GaAs substrate and then move into the electrolyte effectively.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.130-135
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• 2005

Cadmium selenide is one of the group IIb-VI compounds, which is the promising semiconductor material due to its wide range of technological applications in optoelectronic devices such as photoelectrochemical cells, solid state solar cells, thin film photoconductors etc. CdSe has optical band gap of 1.7-1.8eV and proper conduction band edge for water splitting. CdSe films are coated with small thickness(20-50nm) nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ film by electrodeposition or chemical bath deposition methods and PEC properties of CdSe and CdSe/$TiO_2$ sandwich structure are studied. The photoactivity of CdSe and CdSe/$TiO_2$ films deposited on titanium substrate is studied in aqueous electrolyte of 1M NaOH solution. Photocurrent and photovoltage obtained were of the order of 2-4 mA/$cm^2$ and 0.5V, respectively, under the intensity of illumination of 100 mW/$cm^2$.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.174-179
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• 2011

The mesoscopic $Sb_2S_3$-sensitized photoelectrochemical solar cells using cobalt redox electrolyte exhibit nonlinear behavior of power conversion efficiency with illuminated sun intensity. From the measurement of bulk diffusion and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies, we suggest that the nonlinearity of device performance with illuminated sun intensity is attributed not to the slow bulk diffusion problem of cobalt electrolyte but to the limited mass transport in narrowed pore volume in mesoscopic $TiO_2$ electrode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.101-101
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• 2015

Photoelectrochemical water splitting is considered as a promising method of transforming solar energy into chemical energy stored in the type of hydrogen. An n-type $WO_3$ semiconductor is one of the most promising photoanodes for hydrogen production from water splitting. Films annealed at lower temperatures consisted of amorphous, whereas films annealed above $500^{\circ}C$ comprised solely of monoclinic $WO_3$. In this study, we observed photoactivity of $WO_3$ as increasing thickness of $WO_3$. And it shows good photoacivity as thickness increases. Also we tried to improve photoactivity through surface modification and bulk modification by using hydrogen treatment and conducting polymer. The photocurrent was measured in potentiostatic method with the three electrode system. A Pt wire and Ag / AgCl electrode were used as the counter electrode and the reference electrode, respectively. photocurrent-time (I-T) curve was measured at a bias potential of 0.79 V.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.369-375
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• 1987

The effects of dopant Al2O3 and surface roughness on the photoelectrochemical conversion of TiO2 ceramic electrodes were investigated. The photocurrent increased with increasing the amount of dopant Al2O3 up to 0.1wt% and 0.05wt% in the specimens reduced at 700$^{\circ}C$ and 800$^{\circ}C$, respectively, and then decreased. However, the photoresponse appeared around 415 nm, which very closely corresponds to the energy band gap of TiO2(∼3.0eV), regardless of reduction temperature and the amount of Al2O3. And the photocurrent increased with increasing surface roughness in the undoped TiO2 ceramic electrode.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2010

Nanostructured metal oxides have been widely used in the research fields of photoelectrochemistry, photochemistry and opto-electronics. Dye-sensitized solar cell is a typical example because it is based on nanostructured $TiO_2$. Since the discovery of dye-sensitized solar cell in 1991, it has been considered as a promising photovoltaic solar cell because of low-cost, colorful and semitransparent characteristics. Unlike p-n junction type solar cell, dye-sensitized solar cell is photoelectrochemical type and is usually composed of the dye-adsorbed nanocrystalline metal oxide, the iodide/tri-iodide redox electrolyte and the Pt and/or carbon counter electrode. Among the studied issues to improve efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell, nanoengineering technologies of metal oxide particle and film have been reviewed in terms of improving optical property, electron transport and electron life time.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.258-266
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• 1989

The effects of grain size and dopant ZnO on the photoelectrochemical conversion in TiO2 ceramic electrodes have been investigated. The photocurrent increases with increasing grain size in the undoped TiO2 ceramic electrode. In ZnO-doped TiO2 electrodes, the photocurrent decreases with increasing ZnO up to 0.4 wt% due to decrease of donor concentration, and then with further addition of ZnO, photocurrent increases according to the formation of second phase. However, the photoresponse appears at wavelength of 420nm, which is very close to the energy band gap of TiO2, regardless of grain size and amount of ZnO.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.584-587
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• 2011

In this work, the $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$ thin films as blocking layers were coated directly onto the metal-mesh electrode surface to prevent unnecessary inflow of back-transfer electrons from the electrolyte ($I^-/I_3^-$) to the metal-mesh electrode. The DSCs were fabricated with working electrode of SUS mesh coated with blocking $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$ layers, dye-attached mesoporous $TiO_2$ film, gel electrolyte and counter electrode of Pt-deposited F:$SnO_2$. From the experimental result, it was ascertained that the efficiency of metal electrode coated with $TiO_2$ by Dip-coating was superior to that of metal electrode coated with $SnO_2$ by Dip-coating and screen printing with the results of experiments. The photo-current conversion efficiency of the cell obtained from optimum fabrication condition was 3% ($V_{oc}$=0.61V, $J_{sc}$=11.64 mA/$cm^2$, ff=0.64) under AM1.5, 100 mW/$cm^2$ illumination.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.100-100
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• 2011

Nanomaterial architecture with highly ordered, vertically oriented $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays shows a good promise for diverse technological applications. As inspired from the literature reports that Nickel modification can improve the photocatalytic activity of $TiO_2$, it was planned to coat Ni into the $TiO_2$ matrix. In this study, first $TiO_2$ nanotubes(TiNTs) were prepared by anodization (60V,3min) in HF-free aqueous electrolyte on ultrasonically cleaned polished titanium sheet substrates ($1{\times}7cm^2$). The typical thickness of the sintered TiNT ($500^{\circ}C$for10min) was ~1 micronas confirmed from the FESEM study. In the next part, as-anodized and sintered TiNT/Ti photoanodes were used to coat Ni by AC electrodeposition from aqueous 0.1M nickel sulphate solution. During AC electrodeposition, conditions such as 1V DC offset voltage, 9V amplitude (peak-to-peak) and 750 Hz frequency were fixed constant and the deposition time was varied as 0.5 min, 1 min, 2 min and 10 min. The photoelectrochemical performance of pristine and Ni modified TiNT/Ti photoanodes was measured in 1N NaOH electrolyte under 1 SUN illumination in the potential range of -1V and 1.2V versus Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The photocurrent performance of TiNT/Ti photoanode decreased upon Ni modification and the results were confirmed after repeated experiments. This suggests us that Ni modification inhibits the photoelectrochemical performance of $TiO_2$ nanotubes.