Modeling Performance and Degradation in Photoelectrodes

Coupled multi-physics modeling can reveal new insights into the processes that govern the performance and degradation of photoelectrodes under varying operation conditions. While many subprocesses have been studied to a great extent, a unified model for PEC device operation is still a work in progress. For example, recent studies use simplified models for the charge transport in the semiconductor or neglect the electrolyte species transport. Also, charge transfer theory at the semiconductor-electrolyte junction (SCEJ) coupled to the solid and liquid has been seldom investigated. Furthermore, the modeling of (time-dependent) degradation through (electro-)chemical corrosion has been initiated recently yet with simplified charge transfer and neglected species transport.