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Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution under Simulated Sunlight from Neutral Electrolytes on (ZnSe)0.85 (CuIn0.7 Ga0.3 Se2 )0.15
Hiroyuki Kaneko1, Tsutomu Minegishi1,2, Mamiko Nakabayashi1,3
1Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.
Abstract:
A (ZnSe)0.85 (CuIn0.7 Ga0.3 Se2 )0.15 photocathode with a bilayer structure was fabricated and found to exhibit a photocurrent almost twice that of a photocathode with a monolayer structure during hydrogen evolution from water. The cathodic photocurrent reached maximum values of 12 and 4.9 mA cm-2 at 0 and 0.6 VRHE in a neutral phosphate buffer under simulated sunlight, while the half-cell solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency was 3.0 % at 0.6 VRHE , with a maximum value of 3.6 % at 0.45 VRHE . Cross-sectional mapping of the electron-beam-induced current established that the increased photocurrent can be attributed to improved uniformity at the solid-liquid junction in the bilayer sample, which results in enhanced carrier collection.

