Integrated halide perovskite photoelectrochemical cells with solar-driven water-splitting efficiency of 20.8.

Fehr, Austin M K; Agrawal, Ayush; Mandani, Faiz; Conrad, Christian L; Jiang, Qi; Park, So Yeon; Alley, Olivia; Li, Bor et al. · Nat Commun · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Achieving high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency concomitant with long-term durability using low-cost, scalable photo-absorbers is a long-standing challenge. Here we report the design and fabrication of a conductive adhesive-barrier (CAB) that translates >99% of photoelectric power to chemical reactions. The CAB enables halide perovskite-based photoelectrochemical cells with two different architectures that exhibit record STH efficiencies. The first, a co-planar photocathode-photoanode architecture, achieved an STH efficiency of 13.4% and 16.3 h to t<sub>60</sub>, solely limited by the hygroscopic hole transport layer in the n-i-p device. The second was formed using a monolithic stacked silicon-perovskite tandem, with a peak STH efficiency of 20.8% and 102 h of continuous operation before t<sub>60</sub> under AM 1.5G illumination. These advances will lead to efficient, durable, and low-cost solar-driven water-splitting technology with multifunctional barriers.