Photovoltaic-(photo)electrochemical devices for water splitting and water treatment

Abstract

The current energy scenario requires not only the conversion of renewable energy sources into electrical energy, but also a way to store it to match the demand and supply. In particular, solar energy can be used to stabilize energy conversion and energy supply by converting the energy in other diverse ways. And important possibility are photo electrochemical (PEC) reactions for water splitting and water treatment. To be able to directly drive these kind of reactions using solar energy, the interactions between the different elements must be studied in detail. In particular, the semiconductor/electrolyte interface seems to play a very important role in these kinds of devices. Moreover, each of these reactions needs specific conditions in terms of current and voltage, and thus specific semiconductor device architectures would be needed. In these two cases, both a study of the reaction, focusing on the semiconductor/ electrolyte interface, and a device optimization was performed.