Black Silicon Photoanodes Entirely Prepared with Abundant Materials by Low-Cost Wet Methods

K. Oh (1) , L. Joanny , F. Gouttefangeas , Bruno Fabre (1) , V. Dorcet , B. Lassalle-Kaiser , A. Vacher , Cristelle Mériadec (2) , S. Ababou-Girard (2) , Gabriel Loget (1)

1 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes
2 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

We report a new design for water-splitting photoanodes, based on a highly absorbing black silicon (BSi) substrate modified with catalytic metal nanoparticles (NPs). The overall fabrication strategy is cost-efficient as it only requires the use of abundant materials and simple wet procedures such as electrochemical etching and electrodeposition and does not involve the use of a buried homojunction and protection layer. Importantly, these results demonstrate that electrodeposited transition metal NPs can stabilize structured Si photoelectrodes without the need for a protection layer.

Keywords: silicon; nickel; artificial photosynthesis; water splitting

Domains: Chemical Sciences

K. Oh, L. Joanny, F. Gouttefangeas, Bruno Fabre, V. Dorcet, et al.. Black Silicon Photoanodes Entirely Prepared with Abundant Materials by Low-Cost Wet Methods. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2019, ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2 (2), pp.1006. ⟨10.1021/acsaem.8b02229⟩. ⟨hal-02086216⟩