Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting19 (NFM19)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2019.183
Publication date: 18th July 2019
Photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting has been championed as a prospective way to synthesize “green hydrogen” in an efficient and cheap manner. In that regard, different metal oxide semiconductors have been extensively investigated for their application as photoelectrode materials due to their low cost and supposed high stability in oxidizing environments. In addition, metal oxides have increasingly been used as protective layers to passivate unstable photoactive materials. In both cases, metal oxides are in contact with the electrolyte making a semiconductor-liquid junction (SLJ). While a significant amount of research focuses on the material properties of the metal oxide semiconductors, less attention has been paid to the role of the electrolyte, and how its composition (pH, anions, and cations) can affect the SLJ, especially under illumination. In this talk, we provide new fundamental insights on the electrode/electrolyte interface of metal oxide photoanodes under operating conditions, which can have substantial implications in the performance evaluation and long term stability of these materials. Using a series of characterization techniques, we show how the different components of the electrolyte can either form new layers on the surface under illumination, or can stabilize reaction intermediates enhancing electrocatalytic performance. Both of these effects have implications for practical utilization of PEC water splitting materials, but also for fundamental mechanistic insights of reaction pathways. We would like to emphasize to the PEC community that the dynamic nature of this electrode/electrolyte interface and the effect of co-ions in the solution should be accounted for while making performance analysis or comparisons, and in the testing of new photoanode materials.
Additional reference : Firet, Nienke J., and Venugopal, Anirudh, et al., “Chemisorption of anionic species from the electrolyte alters the surface electronic structure and composition of photocharged BiVO4” (under review in Chemistry of Materials)
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.