Fabrication of WO3 photoanode on crystalline Si solar cell for water splitting.

An integrated device of solar cell and photocatalysis (p-Si fronted solar cell/ CoSi₂/WO₃) has been used as photoanode for water splitting. The WO₃ had been synthesized by co-electrodeposition of CoW on the p-Si fronted solar cell and followed by the annealing and acid treatment. The XRD and SEM show the amorphous structure for both as-depostion and after treatment samples. After the treatment, XPS and the ellipsometer spectroscopy shows that the CoSi₂ and WO₃ was formed with the band gap of 1.32 eV and 2.67 eV, respectively. Without additional power, we had demonstrated that the p-Si fronted solar cell/CoSi₂/WO₃ can achieve ~ 0.046 mA/cm² photocurrent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]