Publications related to A Ga2O3 underlayer as an isomorphic template for ultrathin hematite films toward efficient photoelectrochemical water splitting

High-throughput parallel testing of ten photoelectrochemical cells for water splitting: case study on the effects of temperature in hematite photoanodes

Sophia Haussener, Isaac Thomas Holmes-Gentle, Roberto Valenza, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

High-throughput testing of photoelectrochemical cells and materials under well-defined operating conditions can accelerate the discovery of new semiconducting materials, the characterization of the phenomena occurring at the semiconductor-electrolyte inter ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Stability and degradation of (oxy)nitride photocatalysts for solar water splitting

Sophia Haussener, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

Advancing towards alternative technologies for the sustainable production of hydrogen is a necessity for the successful integration of this potentially green fuel in the future. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting are promising concepts ...

2024

Assessing the Charge Carrier Dynamics at Hybrid Interfaces of Organic Photoanodes for Solar Fuels

Kevin Sivula, Yongpeng Liu, Han-Hee Cho, Alexander Wieczorek

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have emerged as promising active layers for photoanodes to drive photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxidation reactions. Interfacing an OSC with an inorganic electron transport layer (ETL) is key to enabling both high performance and ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Photocatalysis: Material, Photonic and Electronic Effects

Fateme Kiani Shahvandi

Plasmonic photochemistry has a large potential to replace energy-intensive chemical processes with low-temperature, low-pressure light-driven chemical reactions. Plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as promising photocatalysts with exceptional and tunable ...

EPFL2024

Improving the photoelectrocatalytic efficiency of CuWO4 through molybdenum for tungsten substitution and coupling with BiVO4

Kevin Sivula, Annalisa Polo

A systematic investigation on the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) performance of a series of CuW1-xMoxO4 materials with different Mo for W substitution (x = 0-0.8), successfully synthesized as single, transparent photoactive layers, allowed us to identify copp ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Data-Intensive Exploration of the Photoelectrochemical Responses of Main-Group Metal Sulfides

Nicola Colonna

Materials that efficiently promote the thermodynamically uphill water-splitting reaction under solar illumination are essential for generating carbon-free ("green") hydrogen. Mapping out the combinatorial space of potential photocatalysts for this reaction ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Microstructural and electrical characterization of high temperature passivating contacts for silicon solar cells

Sofia Libraro

Recombination at metal/semiconductor interfaces represents the main limitation in mainstream c-Si solar cells, primarily based on the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) concept. Full-area passivating contacts based on SiOx/poly-Si stacks are a candida ...

EPFL2024

Towards Scalable Electronics: Synthetic 2D Materials for Large-Area 2D Circuit Integration

Zhenyu Wang

In the past decades, a significant increase of the transistor density on a chip has led to exponential growth in computational power driven by Moore's law. To overcome the bottleneck of traditional von-Neumann architecture in computational efficiency, effo ...

EPFL2024

Font Side Solutions for c-Si Solar Cells with High-Temperature Passivating Contacts

Ezgi Genç

In this work, we studied the potential of using thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for two main purposes: introducing an n-type passivating contact at the front of a TOPCon solar cell, or simplifying the fabrication o ...

EPFL2024

Shortwave Infrared-Sensitive, Narrowband Organic Upconversion Devices with a Gain

Wei-Hsu Hu

Sensing and imaging of light in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range is increasingly used in various fields, including bio-imaging, remote sensing, and semiconductor process control. SWIR-sensitive organic photodetectors (OPDs) are promising because organic ...

EPFL2024

Phase-stable indium sulfide achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 14.3% for solar-assisted carbon dioxide reduction to formate

Michael Graetzel, Jingshan Luo, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jing Gao, Qixing Zhang, Jun Li

Tremendous efforts have been made in developing highly selective catalysts for electrochemical CO 2 conversion to formate. However, the rapid deactivation resulting from structural reconstruction and phase transition poses considerable challenges to the sy ...

Cell Press2024

A comprehensive physical model for the sensitivity of silicon heterojunction photovoltaic modules to water ingress

Christophe Ballif, Alessandro Francesco Aldo Virtuani, Luca Gnocchi, Olatz Arriaga Arruti

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ)-solar modules-when encapsulated with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)-are known to be extremely sensitive to water ingress. The reason for this is, however, not clear. Here, we explain the root causes of this degradation mechanism ...

Cell Press2024

Alleviating nanostructural phase impurities enhances the optoelectronic properties, device performance and stability of cesium-formamidinium metal-halide perovskites

Christophe Ballif, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Beat Ruhstaller, Mostafa Rabie Shlaly Bahr Othman, Daniel Anthony Jacobs, Christian Michael Wolff, Anaël Morgane Jaffrès, Austin George Kuba

The technique of alloying FA+ with Cs+ is often used to promote structural stabilization of the desirable alpha-FAPbI3 phase in halide perovskite devices. However, the precise mechanisms by which these alloying approaches improve the optoelectronic quality ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Interfacial engineering through lead binding using crown ethers in perovskite solar cells

Jun Ho Yum, Kevin Sivula, Jiyoun Seo, Jovana Milic, Yeonju Kim

In the domain of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the imperative to reconcile impressive photovoltaic performance with lead-related issue and environmental stability has driven innovative solutions. This study pioneers an approach that not only rectifies lea ...

Elsevier2024

Modeling, design and economics of PEC devices

Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry

Photo-electrochemical (PEC) devices allow for converting solar energy into chemical energy and for the production of energetically dense solar fuels. Light absorption, charge separation and transport, electrochemical reactions, and ionic transport are requ ...

EPFL2024

Computational Studies on the Stability of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Halide Lead Perovskites

Mathias Dankl

Perovskite-based solar cells are currently the most rapidly advancing photovoltaic technology but concerns about their long-term stability are still impeding full-scale commercialization. This thesis provides computational insights into some of the stabili ...

EPFL2024

Plasmonically enhanced molecular junctions for investigation of atomic-scale fluctuations in self-assembled monolayers

Sakthi Priya Amirtharaj

Molecular junctions represent a fascinating frontier in the realm of nanotechnology and are one of the smallest optoelectronic devices possible, consisting of individual molecules or a group of molecules that serve as the active element sandwiched between ...

EPFL2024

Study of growth-induced point defects and their impact on InGaN-based optoelectronic devices

Yao Chen

GaN exhibits a decomposition tendency for temperatures far below its melting point and common growth temperatures used in metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE).This characteristic is known to be a major obstacle for realising GaN bulk substrate. There ...

EPFL2024

Long live(d) CsPbBr3 superlattices: colloidal atomic layer deposition for structural stability

Raffaella Buonsanti, Alexander Nicolas Chen, Philippe Benjamin Green, Victoria Lapointe

Superlattice formation afforded by metal halide perovskite nanocrystals has been a phenomenon of interest due to the high structural order induced in these self-assemblies, an order that is influenced by the surface chemistry and particle morphology of the ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Enhanced performance of perovskite solar cell via up-conversion YLiF4:Yb, Er nanoparticles

Mounir Driss Mensi, Anwar Qasem M Alanazi, Masaud Hassan S Almalki

We report a simple and effective method for producing lanthanide ion-doped lithium-fluoride-based nanocrystals (YLiF4). We utilized those nanoparticles for up-conversion in fabricated perovskite solar cells. The obtained results shows that the up-conversio ...

Elsevier2024