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Recent advances in solar cells and photo-electrochemical water splitting by scanning electrochemical microscopy

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Abstract

Investigation on the mechanism and kinetics of charge transfer at semiconductor/electrolyte interface is significant for improving the photoelectric conversion efficiency and developing novel and high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), as a powerful analytical technique, has a potential advantage of high spatial and temporal resolution. It has been expanded into a broad range of research fields since the first inception of SECM in 1989 by Bard groups, which includes biological, enzymes, corrosion, energy conversion and storage (such as solar cells, hydrogen and battery). Herein, we review the basic principles and the development of SECM, and chiefly introduce the recent advances of SECM investigation in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells including solar cells and PEC water splitting. These advances include rapid screening of photocatalysts/photoelectrodes, interfacial reaction kinetics and quantitation of reaction intermediates, which is significant for evaluating the performance, choosing catalysts and developing novel composite photoanodes and high efficiency devices. Finally, we briefly describe the development trends of SECM in energy research.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51602120), Natural Science Foundation of Education Department of Henan Province (No. 17A430023), and the opening project of Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanocomposites and Applications (No. hkd20170106).

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  1. Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanocomposite and Applications, Institute of Nanostructured Functional Materials, Huanghe Science and Technology College, Zhengzhou, 450006, China

    Xiaofan Zhang, Man Liu & Weiqian Kong

  2. School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523808, China

    Xiaofan Zhang & Hongbo Fan

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  1. Xiaofan Zhang
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Correspondence to Xiaofan Zhang.

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Xiaofan Zhang received her Ph.D. degree in Photoelectric Information Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2015. She joined Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanocomposite and Applications and Institute of Nanostructured Functional Materials at Huanghe Science and Technology College in 2015. Now she is a lecturer, working in School of Environment and Civil Engineering of Dongguan University of Technology from 2018. Her research interests are related to energy conversion, and focus on solar water splitting, dynamics investigation of photoelectrochemical interfacial reaction and electrocatalysis.

Man Liu received her M.Sc degree from the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Zhengzhou University in 2013. Currently, she works on Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nano-composite and Applications of Huanghe Science and Technology College. Her research interests mainly focus on analysis of materials by means of NMR spectrometer, mass spectrograph, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Weiqian Kong obtained her M.Sc degree from Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) in Soochow University in 2015. Then she works as a teaching assistant until now in Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanocomposite and Applications, Institute of Nanostructured Functional Materials of Huanghe Science and Technology College. Her research interests focus on carbon nanomaterials and their applications in detection and catalysis, photoelectrochemical water splitting, energy and environmental applications.

Hongbo Fan received his B.Sc. degree from Henan Normal University in 1983, his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1996 and 2003, respectively. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at South China University of Technology from 2003 to 2005. Prof. Fan joined Dongguan University of Technology in 2005. Currently, he is the dean of School of Environment and Civil Engineering and the director of Dongguan Clean Production Technology Center. His research interests are related to energy storage materials, intelligence materials, as well as energy efficiency and environmental protection, and so on.

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Zhang, X., Liu, M., Kong, W. et al. Recent advances in solar cells and photo-electrochemical water splitting by scanning electrochemical microscopy. Front. Optoelectron. 11, 333–347 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-018-0852-7

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