Formation of high-density CuBi2O4 thin film photocathodes with polyvinylpyrrolidone-metal interaction

Photoelectrochemical Performance of a CuBi2O4 Photocathode with H2O2 as a Scavenger

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is an eco-friendly method for producing clean and sustainable hydrogen fuels. Compared with the fabrication of solar hydrogen using n-type metal oxide semiconductor photoanodes, that of solar hydrogen using p-type metal oxide semiconductor photocathodes has not been researched as thoroughly. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of drop casting time on the PEC performance of a prepared CuBi2O4 photocathode. XPS, HRTEM, UV-DRS, Raman spectroscopy, XRD, and SEM analyses were used to characterize the prepared CuBi2O4 photocathode. Owing to the high charge separation and transfer, the photocurrent density of the CuBi2O4 photocathode was ~0.6 mA cm−2 at 0.3 V vs. RHE. The nanoporous CuBi2O4 photocathode exhibited a high photocurrent density of up to 1.2 mA cm−2 at 0.3 V vs. RHE with H2O2 as a sacrificial agent. Mott–Schottky and impedance measurements were also performed on the CuBi2O4 photocathode to estimate its acceptor density and charge-transfer resistance.

Flexible BiVO4/WO3/ITO/Muscovite Heterostructure for Visible-Light Photoelectrochemical Photoelectrode

Flexible electronics has recently captured extensive attention due to its intriguing functionalities and great potential for influencing our daily life. In addition, with the increasing demand for green energy, photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a clean process that directly converts solar energy to chemical energy in the form of hydrogen. Thus the development of flexible green energy electronics represents a new domain in the research field of energy harvesting. In this work, we demonstrate the BiVO₄ (BVO)/WO₃/ITO/muscovite heterostructure photoelectrode for water splitting with flexible characteristics. The performance of BVO was modified by specific crystal facets, and the BVO/WO₃ bilayer exhibited superior performance of 33% enhanced PEC activity at 1 V vs Ag/AgCl compared with pure BVO due to the proper staggered band alignment. Moreover, excellent mechanical stability was verified by a series of bending modes. This study demonstrates a pathway to a flexible photoelectrode for developing innovative devices for solar fuel generation.

Simulating the performance of a highly efficient CuBi2O4-based thin-film solar cell

In this study, copper bismuth oxide (CuBi2O4) absorber-based thin film heterojunction solar cell structure consisting of Al/FTO/CdS/CuBi2O4/Ni has been proposed. The proposed solar cell device structure has been modeled and analyzed by using the solar cell capacitance simulator in one dimension (SCAPS-1D) software program. The performance of the proposed photovoltaic device is evaluated numerically by varying thickness, doping concentrations, defect density, operating temperature, back metal contact work function, series and shunt resistances. The current density–voltage behaviors at dark and under illumination are investigated. To realize the high efficiency CuBi2O4-based solar cell, the thickness, acceptor and donor densities, defect densities of different layers have been optimized. The present work reveals that the power conversion efficiency can be enhanced by increasing the absorber layer thickness. The efficiency of 26.0% with open-circuit voltage of 0.97 V, short-circuit current density of 31.61 mA/cm2, and fill-factor of 84.58% is achieved for the proposed solar cell at the optimum 2.0-μm-thick CuBi2O4 absorber layer. It is suggested that the p-type CuBi2O4 material proposed in the present study can be employed as a promising absorber layer for applications in the low cost and high efficiency thin-film solar cells.

Template Engineering of CuBi2 O4 Single-Crystal Thin Film Photocathodes

To develop strategies for efficient photo-electrochemical water-splitting, it is important to understand the fundamental properties of oxide photoelectrodes by synthesizing and investigating their single-crystal thin films. However, it is challenging to synthesize high-quality single-crystal thin films from copper-based oxide photoelectrodes due to the occurrence of significant defects such as copper or oxygen vacancies and grains. Here, the CuBi₂ O₄ (CBO) single-crystal thin film photocathode is achieved using a NiO template layer grown on single-crystal SrTiO₃ (STO) (001) substrate via pulsed laser deposition. The NiO template layer plays a role as a buffer layer of large lattice mismatch between CBO and STO (001) substrate through domain-matching epitaxy, and forms a type-II band alignment with CBO, which prohibits the transfer of photogenerated electrons toward bottom electrode. The photocurrent densities of the CBO single-crystal thin film photocathode demonstrate -0.4 and -0.7 mA cm^-2 at even 0 V_RHE with no severe dark current under illumination in a 0.1 m potassium phosphate buffer solution without and with H₂ O₂ as an electron scavenger, respectively. The successful synthesis of high-quality CBO single-crystal thin film would be a cornerstone for the in-depth understanding of the fundamental properties of CBO toward efficient photo-electrochemical water-splitting.

Direct Identification of Antisite Cation Intermixing and Correlation with Electronic Conduction in CuBi2O4 for Photocathodes

Cu-based p-type semiconducting oxides have been sought for water-reduction photocathodes to enhance the energy-conversion efficiency in photoelectrochemical cells. CuBi₂O₄ has recently attracted notable attention as a new family of p-type oxides, based on its adequate band gap. Although the identification of a major defect structure should be the first step toward understanding the electronic conduction behavior, no direct experimental analysis has been carried out yet. Using atomic-scale scanning transmission electron microscopy together with chemical probing, we identify a substantial amount of Bi_Cu-Cu_Bi antisite intermixing as a major point-defect type. Our density functional theory calculations also show that antisite Bi_Cu can seriously hinder the hole-polaron hopping between Cu, in agreement with lower conductivity and a larger thermal activation barrier under a higher degree of intermixing. These findings highlight the value of the direct identification of point defects for a better understanding of electronic properties in complex oxides.

Long-term stabilized high-density CuBi2O4/NiO heterostructure thin film photocathode grown by pulsed laser deposition

Harvesting sustainable hydrogen through water-splitting requires a durable photoelectrode to achieve high efficiency and long lifetime. Dense, uniform CuBi₂O₄/NiO thin film photocathodes grown by pulsed laser deposition achieved photocurrent density over 1.5 mA cm^-2 at 0.4 V_RHE and long-term chronoamperometric stability for over 8 hours.