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Overcoming Phase‐Purity Challenges in Complex Metal Oxide Photoelectrodes: A Case Study of CuBi 2 O 4
Author(s) -
Gottesman Ronen,
Levine Igal,
Schleuning Markus,
Irani Rowshanak,
AbouRas Daniel,
Dittrich Thomas,
Friedrich Dennis,
Krol Roel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.202003474
Subject(s) - materials science , thermal stability , phase (matter) , oxide , nanotechnology , metal , fabrication , semiconductor , water splitting , bottleneck , thermal , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , photocatalysis , metallurgy , computer science , catalysis , medicine , biochemistry , chemistry , alternative medicine , organic chemistry , pathology , engineering , embedded system , physics , meteorology
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 CuBi 2 O 4 , a prime candidate photoabsorber. Pure CuBi 2 O 4 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.