Construction of High-Performance, Low-Cost Photoelectrodes with Controlled Polycrystalline Architectures

The major goal of our research was to gain the ability in electrochemical synthesis to precisely control compositions and morphologies of various oxide-based polycrystalline photoelectrodes in order to establish the composition-morphology-photoelectrochemical property relationships while discovering highly efficient photoelectrode systems for use in solar energy conversion. Major achievements include: development of porous n-type BiVO{sub 4} photoanode for efficient and stable solar water oxidation; development of p-type CuFeO{sub 2} photocathode for solar hydrogen production; and junction studies on electrochemically fabricated p-n Cu{sub 2}O homojunction solar cells for efficiency enhancement