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Calculated Pourbaix Diagrams of Cubic Perovskites for Water Splitting: Stability Against Corrosion

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Abstract

We use density functional theory calculations to investigate the stability of cubic perovskites for photo-electrochemical water splitting taking both materials in their bulk crystal structure and dissolved phases into account. The method is validated through a detailed comparison of the calculated and experimental Pourbaix diagrams for TiO2 and ZnO. For a class of 23 oxides, oxynitrides, and oxyfluorides, which were recently proposed as candidates for one-photon water splitting, our calculations predict most of the materials to be stable at potentials around the water red-ox level. The oxides become less stable at lower potentials, while the oxynitrides become unstable at higher potentials. We discuss the implications of these findings for the problem of photo-corrosion of water splitting electrodes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Jan Rossmeisl for useful discussions. The authors acknowledge support from the Catalysis for Sustainable Energy (CASE) initiative funded by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and from the Center on Nanostructuring for the Efficient Energy Conversion (CNEEC) at Stanford University, an Energy Frontier Research Center founded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0001060

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Center for Atomic-scale Materials Design, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Ivano E. Castelli, Kristian S. Thygesen & Karsten W. Jacobsen

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  1. Ivano E. Castelli
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  2. Kristian S. Thygesen
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  3. Karsten W. Jacobsen
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Correspondence to Ivano E. Castelli.

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Castelli, I.E., Thygesen, K.S. & Jacobsen, K.W. Calculated Pourbaix Diagrams of Cubic Perovskites for Water Splitting: Stability Against Corrosion. Top Catal 57, 265–272 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-013-0181-4

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