Am. Fajardo et al., NEW APPROACHES TO SOLAR-ENERGY CONVERSION USING SI LIQUID JUNCTIONS/, Solar energy materials and solar cells, 38(1-4), 1995, pp. 279-303
New data are presented on efficient Si/liquid junction photoelectroche
mical energy conversion devices. Additional information on the interfa
cial energetics, charge transfer kinetics, and stabilization factors o
f these interfaces has been obtained using a variety of chemical and e
lectrical methods. Transconductance and Mott-Schottky measurements of
the barrier height of n-Si/CH3OH-Me(2)Fc(+/0) contacts have demonstrat
ed that the Si is in strong inversion, with a barrier height of 1.0 eV
. Qualitative evidence for the validity of Marcus-Gerischer theory was
obtained in measurements of the stabilization ratio as a function of
the reorganization energy of the stabilizing redox agent. In addition,
a new type of photoelectrochemical cell, in which charge carriers are
collected primarily using diffusion gradients as opposed to drift, ha
s shown high efficiency and unpinned electrical junction behavior in c
ontact with various redox couples.