Monolithic Photoassisted Water Splitting Device Using Anodized Ni-Fe Oxygen Evolution Catalytic Substrate

Abstract

Large-scale industrial application of solar-driven water splitting has called for the development of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts that deliver high catalytic activity and stability. Here it is shown that an efficient OER catalytic substrate can be developed by roll-to-roll fabrication of electrodeposited Ni-Fe foils, followed by anodization. An amorphous oxyhydroxide layer directly formed on Ni-Fe foils exhibits high catalytic activity toward water oxidation in 1 m KOH solution, which requires an overpotential of 0.251 V to reach current density of 10 mA cm?2. The developed catalytic electrode shows the best OER activity among catalysts with film structure. The catalyst also shows prolonged stability at vigorous gas evolution condition for 36 h. To demonstrate the monolithic photoassisted water splitting device, an amorphous silicon solar cell is fabricated on Ni-Fe catalytic substrate, resulting in lowering OER overpotential under light illumination. This monolithic device is the first demonstration that the OER catalytic substrates and the solar cells are integrated and can be easily applied for industrial scale solar-driven water electrolysis. ? 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim