Kesterite based Photoelectrodes for Water and Nitrogen Reduction - KESPER
The project ventured into developing multinary kesterite compound for photoelectrochemical water splitting and ammonia generation. Despite relentless efforts to improve, the instability of kesterite in aqueous media and control over phase impurities posed a setback to achieve the ambitious objectives of the project. Not deterred by the setback, the project continued to improve material quality and look for alternative promising absorber systems. While doing so, a unique wide band gap chalcogenide absorber based Cu(In,Ga)S2 was developed that was not only stable in aqueous media but also facilitated water splitting, nitrate reduction, and CO2 redcution, without any protection layer or using a co-catalyst. This unique behaviour led to the foundation of a multi-partner consortium for a European pathfinder project proposal, and partnership with an established renewable energy company. To break the performance bottleneck of PEC devices, the project proposed to go beyond single cell approaches and developed a novel Sb2S3/Si tandem sheet like PEC devices that is capable of splitting water without any external bias. The processing of chalcogenide absorber directly on industrially compatible textured silicon substrates open up the possibility of scalable PEC devices, resembling artificial leaf.
