Silicon based multilayer photoelectrodes for photoelectrolysis of water to produce hydrogen from the sun

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Title Silicon based multilayer photoelectrodes for photoelectrolysis of water to produce hydrogen from the sun
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Electrical & Computer Engineering
Author Faruque, Faisal
Date 2011-05
Description The main objective of this work is to study different materials for the direct photosynthesis of hydrogen from water. A variety of photocatalysts such as titanium dioxide, titanium oxy-nitride, silicon carbide, and gallium nitride are being investigated by others for the clean production of hydrogen for fuel cells and hydrogen economy. Our approach was to deposit suitable metallic regions on photocatalyst nanoparticles to direct the efficient synthesis of hydrogen to a particular site for convenient collection. We studied different electrode metals such as gold, platinum, titanium, palladium, and tungsten. We also studied different solar cell materials such as silicon (p- and n-types), silicon carbide and titanium dioxide semiconductors in order to efficiently generate electrons under illumination. We introduced a novel silicon-based multilayer photosynthesis device to take advantage of suitable properties of silicon and tungsten to efficiently produce hydrogen. The device consisted of a silicon (0.5mm) substrate, a deposited atomic layer of Al2O3 (1nm), a doped polysilicon (0.1?m), and finally a tungsten nanoporous (5-10nm) layer acting as an interface electrode with water. The Al2O3 layer was introduced to reduce leakage current and to prevent the spreading of the diffused p-n junction layer between the silicon and doped polysilicon layers. The surface of the photoelectrode was coated with nanotext;ured tungsten nanopores (TNP), which increased the surface area of the electrodes to the electrolyte, assisting in electron-hole mobility, and acting as a photocatalyst. The reported device exhibited a fill factor (%FF) of 27.22% and solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 0.03174%. This thesis describes the structures of the device, and offers a characterization and comparison between different photoelectrodes.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Energy; Hydrogen; Multilayer; Nanopores; Photoelectrodes; Photoelectrolysis
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Science
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Faisal Faruque 2011
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 3,146,679 bytes
Identifier us-etd3,34259
Source Original housed in Marriott Library Special Collections, QD3.5 2011 .F37
ARK ark:/87278/s654339v
Setname ir_etd
ID 194355
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s654339v
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