Highest Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion Efficiency in Cu₂ZnSnS₄ Photocathodes and Its Directly Unbiased Solar Seawater...

Despite being an excellent candidate for a photocathode, Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) performance is limited by suboptimal bulk and interfacial charge carrier dynamics. In this work, we introduce a facile and versatile CZTS precursor seed layer engineering technique, which significantly enhances crystal growth and mitigates detrimental defects in the post-sulfurized CZTS light-absorbing films. This effective optimization of defects and charge carrier dynamics results in a highly efficient CZTS/CdS/TiO₂/Pt thin-film photocathode, achieving a record half-cell solar-to-hydrogen (HC-STH) conversion efficiency of 9.91%. Additionally, the photocathode exhibits a highest photocurrent density (J_ph) of 29.44 mA cm^-2 (at 0 V_RHE) and favorable onset potential (V_on) of 0.73 V_RHE. Furthermore, our CTZS photocathode demonstrates a remarkable J_ph of 16.54 mA cm^-2 and HC-STH efficiency of 2.56% in natural seawater, followed by an impressive unbiased STH efficiency of 2.20% in a CZTS-BiVO₄ tandem cell. The scalability of this approach is underscored by the successful fabrication of a 4 × 4 cm² module, highlighting its significant potential for practical, unbiased in situ solar seawater splitting applications.