A Fully Integrated Nanosystem of Semiconductor Nanowires for Direct Solar Water Splitting

A fully integrated nanosystem of semiconductor nanowires for direct solar water splitting.

Artificial photosynthesis, the biomimetic approach to converting sunlight's energy directly into chemical fuels, aims to imitate nature by using an integrated system of nanostructures, each of which plays a specific role in the sunlight-to-fuel conversion process. Here we describe a fully integrated system of nanoscale photoelectrodes assembled from inorganic nanowires for direct solar water sp...

All inorganic semiconductor nanowire mesh for direct solar water splitting.

The generation of chemical fuels via direct solar-to-fuel conversion from a fully integrated artificial photosynthetic system is an attractive approach for clean and sustainable energy, but so far there has yet to be a system that would have the acceptable efficiency, durability and can be manufactured at a reasonable cost. Here, we show that a semiconductor mesh made from all inorganic nanowir...

Modeling, simulation, and fabrication of a fully integrated, acid-stable, scalable solar-driven water-splitting system.

A fully integrated solar-driven water-splitting system comprised of WO3 /FTO/p(+) n Si as the photoanode, Pt/TiO2 /Ti/n(+) p Si as the photocathode, and Nafion as the membrane separator, was simulated, assembled, operated in 1.0 M HClO4 , and evaluated for performance and safety characteristics under dual side illumination. A multi-physics model that accounted for the performance of the photoab...

Semiconductor Nanowires for Solar Cells

This chapter discusses studies of semiconducting nanowire arrays for solar cells. The concept of 3D nanowire architectures for photovoltaic light harvesting to effectively decouple light absorption and carrier separation is presented. The available literature on semiconductor nanowire solar cell studies is summarized. Optical and electronic aspects specific to nanowires are discussed to illustr...

Plasmonic nanoparticle-semiconductor composites for efficient solar water splitting