Novel Nanostructured Metal Oxides for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion

• Main Author: Zhou, Lite
• Other Authors: Pratap M. Rao, Advisor
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital WPI 2019
• Subjects: metal oxides; nanotechnology; photoelectrochemical water splitting
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/510; https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1509&context=etd-dissertations

Metal oxide materials could offer earth-abundant, non-toxic alternatives to existing lightabsorber materials in thin-film photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells. However, efficiency of these devices based on existing metal oxides is typically low due to poor material properties. In this research, novel Sb:SnO2 nanorod and nanotube electron collectors have been synthesized, investigated and were used to improve the photo-conversion efficiency of top-performing BiVO4 photoelectrochemical cell. The performance of Sb:SnO2/BiVO4 photoanode achieved a new record for the product of light absorption and charge separation efficiencies (ηabs × ηsep) of ~ 57.3% and 58.5% under front- and back-side illumination at 0.6 VRHE and Sb:SnO2/BiVO4 PV cell achieved 1.22% solar power conversion efficiency. In addition, a new promising metal oxide material (CuBiW2O8) has been synthesized and its optoelectronic properties have been investigated to make photovoltaic cell which has potential to achieve over 30% solar power conversion efficiency.