IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v7y2022i6d10.1038_s41560-022-01042-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hydrogel protection strategy to stabilize water-splitting photoelectrodes

Author

Listed:
  • Jeiwan Tan

    (Yonsei University)

  • Byungjun Kang

    (Yonsei University)

  • Kyungmin Kim

    (Yonsei University)

  • Donyoung Kang

    (Yonsei University)

  • Hyungsoo Lee

    (Yonsei University)

  • Sunihl Ma

    (Yonsei University)

  • Gyumin Jang

    (Yonsei University)

  • Hyungsuk Lee

    (Yonsei University)

  • Jooho Moon

    (Yonsei University)

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical water splitting is an attractive solar-to-hydrogen pathway. However, the lifetime of photoelectrochemical devices is hampered by severe photocorrosion of semiconductors and instability of co-catalysts. Here we report a strategy for stabilizing photoelectrochemical devices that use a polyacrylamide hydrogel as a highly permeable and transparent device-on-top protector. A hydrogel-protected Sb2Se3 photocathode exhibits stability over 100 h, maintaining ~70% of the initial photocurrent, and the degradation rate gradually decreases to the saturation level. The structural stability of a Pt/TiO2/Sb2Se3 photocathode remains unchanged beyond this duration, and effective bubble escape is ensured through the micro gas tunnel formed in the hydrogel to achieve a mechanically stable protector. We demonstrate the versatility of the device-on-top hydrogel protector under a wide electrolyte pH range and by using a SnS photocathode and a BiVO4 photoanode with ~500 h of lifetime.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeiwan Tan & Byungjun Kang & Kyungmin Kim & Donyoung Kang & Hyungsoo Lee & Sunihl Ma & Gyumin Jang & Hyungsuk Lee & Jooho Moon, 2022. "Hydrogel protection strategy to stabilize water-splitting photoelectrodes," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(6), pages 537-547, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:7:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1038_s41560-022-01042-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01042-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01042-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-022-01042-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Byungjun Kang & Jeiwan Tan & Kyungmin Kim & Donyoung Kang & Hyungsoo Lee & Sunihl Ma & Young Sun Park & Juwon Yun & Soobin Lee & Chan Uk Lee & Gyumin Jang & Jeongyoub Lee & Jooho Moon & Hyungsuk Lee, 2024. "Stable water splitting using photoelectrodes with a cryogelated overlayer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Li Zhang & Xiaoju Yang & Qing Yuan & Zhiming Wei & Jie Ding & Tianshu Chu & Chao Rong & Qiao Zhang & Zhenkun Ye & Fu-Zhen Xuan & Yueming Zhai & Bowei Zhang & Xuan Yang, 2023. "Elucidating the structure-stability relationship of Cu single-atom catalysts using operando surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Zhonghui Zhu & Matyas Daboczi & Minzhi Chen & Yimin Xuan & Xianglei Liu & Salvador Eslava, 2024. "Ultrastable halide perovskite CsPbBr3 photoanodes achieved with electrocatalytic glassy-carbon and boron-doped diamond sheets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Chao Zhen & Xiangtao Chen & Ruotian Chen & Fengtao Fan & Xiaoxiang Xu & Yuyang Kang & Jingdong Guo & Lianzhou Wang & Gao Qing (Max) Lu & Kazunari Domen & Hui-Ming Cheng & Gang Liu, 2024. "Liquid metal-embraced photoactive films for artificial photosynthesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu & Kishore Sridharan & Sanjay Nagarajan & Sengeni Ananthraj & Peter Robertson & Moritz F. Kuehnel & Ángel Irabien & Mercedes Maroto-Valer, 2022. "Solar Hydrogen Fuel Generation from Wastewater—Beyond Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting: A Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-23, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:7:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1038_s41560-022-01042-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.