Unassisted Water Splitting Using Standard Silicon Solar Cells Stabilized with Copper and Bi-functional NiFe Electrocatalysts.

Silicon photovoltaic cells functionalized with water splitting electro-catalysts are promising candidates for unassisted water splitting. In these devices, the total surface of silicon solar cell is covered with electrocatalyst causing issues with i) stabilizing silicon solar cell in water and ii) device efficiency due to parasitic optical absorption in electrocatalyst. We describe and validate a water splitting device concept using a crystalline silicon solar cell where the front-side is covered with insulating Si3N5 antireflection coating. The Ag contacts, fired through the antireflection coating, are removed and subsequently substituted with NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) or Cu/NiFe-LDH electrocatlysts. In this device only the site of Ag contacts, nearly 2% of total device area is covered by the electrocatalyst. We found this small area of catalyst does not limit device performance and addition of a Cu interlayer between Si and NiFe-LDH improves device performance and stability. The unassisted water splitting efficiency of 11.31%, measured without separating the evolved gases, is achieved using a device composed of three series-connected silicon solar cells and a NiFe-LDH/Cu/Ni-foam counter electrode in a highly alkaline electrolyte.