Natural leaf-inspired solar water splitting system

Abstract

We designed a monolithic artificial leaf that mimics a natural leaf; the artificial leaf has a crystalline silicon (c-Si) interdigitated back contact (collectively, c-Si IBC) structure. On the front-side of the artificial leaf, the c-Si module acts similar to chlorophyll in natural leaves, converting solar energy into photo-carriers. On the rear-side of the artificial leaf, a hydrogen and oxygen evolution catalyst converts the carriers into hydrogen; this occurs without blocking light, similar to the conversion of photo-carriers into chemical energy, which mostly occurs on the backside of natural leaves. The solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of the c-Si IBC photoanode and artificial leaf was 10.1% and 8.4% respectively, which are higher than that of a natural leaf (0.1-1%).