The AgCl Photoanode for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

Abstract

Solar energy is the greatest potential source of renewable energy known to human kind and is still largely untapped. The quest to find an efficient means of converting it to a clean and storable fuel remains elusive and is the goal of artificial photosynthesis: the solar splitting of water in O2 and H2 in a man-made system. Our approach to water splitting is based on a photoelectrochemical cell with two semiconductor-liquid junctions, where AgCl acts as the photoanode for O2 production along with the photocathodic materials p-GaInP2 and a silicon solar cell for H2 production. We report light-assisted water splitting with this system, under UV/Vis illumination from aqueous solution, at good yields and without degradation of the photocatalysts.