Nanoscale Semiconductor/Catalyst Interfaces for Water Splitting Photoanodes

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dc.contributor.authorGordon, Adrian Matthew
dc.date.accessioned2019-11-07T16:10:54Z
dc.date.available2019-11-07T16:10:54Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description35 pages
dc.description.abstractThe development of stable and efficient photoanodes for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains a barrier to the realization of commercially viable photoelectrochemical cells. Photoanodes are often fabricated by depositing a thin metal/metal-oxide protection layer on silicon. Studies have shown thinner protection layers correlate with higher performing photoanodes. Additionally repeated electrochemical cycling has shown to enhance performance of photoanodes. Both these phenomena have been hypothesized to result from generation of a spatially inhomogeneous interface following oxidation of the redox active catalyst. The effective barrier height of low barrier height silicon-metal contacts becomes enhanced by surrounding semiconductor-metal oxide contacts, in what is known as the ‘pinch off effect’. In this work, nickel nanoislands which exhibit the pinch off effect are intentionally fabricated using an electrodeposition technique on a silicon photoanode. The efficiency of nanoisland-decorated devices is evaluated using cyclic voltammetry. In addition, we show that electrodeposited contacts can be protected with additional nickel, without compromising their rectifying properties.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/25023
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US
dc.subjectChemistryen_US
dc.subjectPhotoelectrochemicalen_US
dc.subjectCellsen_US
dc.subjectElectrochemistryen_US
dc.subjectSolaren_US
dc.subjectEnergyen_US
dc.titleNanoscale Semiconductor/Catalyst Interfaces for Water Splitting Photoanodes
dc.typeThesis/Dissertation

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