THESIS
2015
xiv, 82 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 30 cm
Abstract
Artificial photosynthesis, utilizing sunlight to split water, may be an effective technique to
store solar energy. Silicon is considered a promising material to split water because of its low
cost and wide use in the photovoltaic industry. However, the application performance is
limited due to its small band gap and inherent corrosion in a neutral or alkaline environment.
Recently, tripe-junction amorphous silicon (3-jn-a-Si) has been investigated to solve such
problems. In this research, with proper catalysts, the 3-jn-a-Si based water-splitting solar cells
were fabricated and studied.
In this thesis, physical methods were applied to explore their morphologies, element
compositions, phase structures, surface properties and light absorption abilities.
Electrochemical methods we...[
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Artificial photosynthesis, utilizing sunlight to split water, may be an effective technique to
store solar energy. Silicon is considered a promising material to split water because of its low
cost and wide use in the photovoltaic industry. However, the application performance is
limited due to its small band gap and inherent corrosion in a neutral or alkaline environment.
Recently, tripe-junction amorphous silicon (3-jn-a-Si) has been investigated to solve such
problems. In this research, with proper catalysts, the 3-jn-a-Si based water-splitting solar cells
were fabricated and studied.
In this thesis, physical methods were applied to explore their morphologies, element
compositions, phase structures, surface properties and light absorption abilities.
Electrochemical methods were used to measure their photoelectrochemical properties. In
addition, catalysts synthesized in different conditions were compared.
The cells showed the highest efficiency of 4.9% and operating time more than 10 hours in the alkaline environment. Moreover, after comparing the cells synthesized in different conditions,
a conclusion can be drawn that the valency value of cobalt in the catalyst and the thickness of
the catalyst had a joint effect on the performance of the cells. Cells with cobalt phosphate
catalyst synthesized in room temperature by applying voltage of 1.3 V versus Ag/AgCl
exhibited the best electrochemical performance.
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