<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The paper presents fabrication and characterization of amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) based structures for photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The increase of the photocurrent of PEC upon the decreased of CH4 flow during the deposition is associated with the decrease of the band gap and increased absorption of light in a-SiC:H. Photocurrent of 50 <italic>µ</italic>A/cm2 is achieved for PEC structure prepared with the lowest CH4 flow during the deposition. An ITO/a-SiC:H/Si silicon heterojunction structure forming a simple photovoltaic cell (PV) with efficiency of 9.66% was prepared to support additional voltage hereby forming a hybrid PEC-PV system. ASA simulation revealed that a photocurrent of 0.62 mA/cm2 and solar to hydrogen efficiency of 0.76% can be achieved for hybrid a PEC-PV structure with 5 PVs connected in series behind the PEC cell. Further opportunities for increasing the performance are discussed and summarized.</abstract>

The paper presents fabrication and characterization of amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) based structures for photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting. The increase of the photocurrent of PEC upon the decreased of CH4 flow during the deposition is associated with the decrease of the band gap and increased absorption of light in a-SiC:H. Photocurrent of 50 µA/cm2 is achieved for PEC structure prepared with the lowest CH4 flow during the deposition. An ITO/a-SiC:H/Si silicon heterojunction structure forming a simple photovoltaic cell (PV) with efficiency of 9.66% was prepared to support additional voltage hereby forming a hybrid PEC-PV system. ASA simulation revealed that a photocurrent of 0.62 mA/cm2 and solar to hydrogen efficiency of 0.76% can be achieved for hybrid a PEC-PV structure with 5 PVs connected in series behind the PEC cell. Further opportunities for increasing the performance are discussed and summarized.

Amorphous silicon PEC-PV hybrid structure for photo-electrochemical water splitting

Journal of Electrical Engineering

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The paper presents fabrication and characterization of amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) based structures for photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting....

Amorphous silicon PEC-PV hybrid structure for photo-electrochemical water splitting

Publicado en línea: 28 sept 2019

Páginas: 107 - 111

Recibido: 19 mar 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jee-2019-0050

Palabras clave
amorphous silicon, photo-electrochemical cell, hydrogen generation, PEC-PV hybrid system

© 2019 Miroslav Mikolasek et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Amorphous silicon PEC-PV hybrid structure for photo-electrochemical water splitting

Publicado en línea: 28 sept 2019

Páginas: 107 - 111

Recibido: 19 mar 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jee-2019-0050

Palabras claveamorphous silicon, photo-electrochemical cell, hydrogen generation, PEC-PV hybrid system

© 2019 Miroslav Mikolasek et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Palabras clave
amorphous silicon, photo-electrochemical cell, hydrogen generation, PEC-PV hybrid system