Fabrication of WO 3 photoanode on crystalline Si solar cell for water splitting

An integrated device of solar cell and photocatalysis (p-Si fronted solar cell/ CoSi 2 /WO 3 ) has been used as photoanode for water splitting. The WO 3 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 CoSi 2 and WO 3 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/CoSi 2 /WO 3 can achieve ~ 0.046 mA/cm 2 photocurrent.