Hydropowered photoelectrochemical water splitting solar cell for hydrogen production

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has been considered to be a promising route for sustainable hydrogen production from the solar energy. However, owing to the suitable potential required for such process, the external bias is usually indispensable on the PEC cell, which hinders its wide application. In this paper, we integrated the PEC cell with hydroelectric generator for water splitting, where the bias potential of the PEC was supplied from its water environment. The ZnO and TiO2 films were prepared on conductive FTO substrates for photoanodes by magnetron sputtering and atomic layer deposition, respectively, while structures and morphologies of the films were characterized by XRD and AFM. A three-electrode electrochemical cell configuration was performed to measure the PEC performance. The results demonstrate that PEC performance can be effectively facilitated when the PEC cell was connected with the hydroelectric generator, which suggests a promising route toward full green design for hydrogen production.