Preparation and Photoelectrochemical Properties of Oxynitride Ceramic Electrodes

Energy shortage is the most critical problems we will face in the future. Solar energy is one of the renewable resources in the world. However, a portion of the photon energy, after conversion to electrical energy, needs to be stored as chemical energy in conventional PV devices. Our present work considers the direct splitting of water using sunlight on semiconductor photoelectrodes and hydrogen can be produced and stored as energy. To date, only some wide band gap semiconductors (TiO2, SrTiO3, KTaO3…) are applicable under UV illumination. However, UV light energy is only about 4%, while visible light is about 43 % of the total energy of the sunlight in the earth. Therefore, many approaches have been attempted to explore the visible-light response photoelectrodes in order to utilize more solar energy. In this project, some new narrow band gaps semiconductors (oxynitrides) will be developed to improve conversion efficiency of solar energy. The student on this study is required to know some knowledge of ceramic preparation and electrochemistry. Research tasks