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Research Article

Nickel-coated silicon photocathode for water splitting in alkaline electrolytes

Ju Feng1,§, Ming Gong1,§, Michael J. Kenney1,§, Justin Z. Wu1, Bo Zhang1, Yanguang Li2, Hongjie Dai1( )
Department of ChemistryStanford UniversityStanfordCalifornia94305USA
Institute of Functional Nano & Soft MaterialsSoochow UniversitySuzhou215123China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising approach to harvest and store solar energy [1]. Silicon has been widely investigated for PEC photoelectrodes due to its suitable band gap (1.12 eV) matching the solar spectrum [2]. Here we investigate employing nickel both as a catalyst and protecting layer of a p-type silicon photocathode for photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution in basic electrolytes for the first time. The silicon photocathode was made by depositing 15 nm Ti on a p-type silicon wafer followed by 5 nm Ni. The photocathode afforded an onset potential of ~0.3 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in alkaline solution (1 M KOH). The stability of the Ni/Ti/p-Si photocathode showed a 100 mV decay over 12 h in KOH, but the stability was significantly improved when the photocathode was operated in potassium borate buffer solution (pH ≈ 9.5). The electrode surface was found to remain intact after 12 h of continuous operation at a constant current density of 10 mA/cm2 in potassium borate buffer, suggesting that Ni affords good protection of Si based photocathodes in borate buffers.

Keywords

nickelphotoelectrochemical water splittingsilicon photocathode

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Nano Research
Volume 8 Issue 5,
May 2015
Pages 1577-1583
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-014-0643-4
Cite this article:
Feng J, Gong M, Kenney MJ, et al. Nickel-coated silicon photocathode for water splitting in alkaline electrolytes. Nano Research, 2015, 8(5): 1577-1583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0643-4

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Received: 02 September 2014
Revised: 05 November 2014
Accepted: 09 November 2014
Published: 17 January 2015
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
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