https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/ 2026-04-23T06:00:01+00:00 FeedCreator 1.7.2-ppt DokuWiki 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:absorbers?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Non-conventional Solar Absorbers Low cost, earth-abundant light absorbers are of great interest for use in terrestrial photovoltaics and in artificial photosynthesis. Non-conventional solar absorbers, e.g., zinc phosphide (Zn3P2), cuprous oxide (Cu

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:anode?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Photoanodes for Water Oxidation Since early photoelectrochemical studies in the 1970s, TiO2 and WO3 have been discovered to be good photoanode materials for oxidizing water. However, they are not very good light absorbers or charge carrier transporters compared with some of the main-group semiconductors. Our approach to addressing these issues consists of (1) fabrication of nanostructured photoanodes which efficiently collect photogenerated charge carriers; and (2) modification of the band gap …

2015-11-11T05:15:52+00:00 2015-11-11T05:15:52+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:catalysts?rev=1447218952&do=diff

Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis Most semiconductor surfaces, including that of silicon, are poor catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Semiconductor water-splitting devices, then, generally require a chemically distinct catalyst species in order to store energy as H-H bonds. Platinum has often been used in the past toward this end, since it catalyzes the HER very efficiently. But due to its low abundance and concomitant high cost, platinum is not desirable for use in a low-cost …

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:cathode?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Silicon Photocathode Arrays Fig. 1. Flexible polymer embedded array. Silicon is a promising photocathode material for photoelectrochemical energy generation because it is earth abundant, has band edges that span the hydrogen redox potential, and is relatively stable in aqueous conditions. We are investigating the use of arrays of VLS grown p-type Si wires as photocathodes in a water-splitting device. There are two advantages to using these highly structured arrays. First, the incident sun…

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:combinatorial?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Combinatorial page

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:lightmaterial?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Light-Matter Interactions The Lewis Group is part of the "Light-Matter Interactions in Energy Conversion" Energy Frontier Research Center. The LMI-EFRC is a national resource for fundamental optical principles and phenomena relevant to solar energy conversion, and for design of the optical properties of materials and devices used for energy conversion. The LMI-EFRC features a team that spans the campuses of the California Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, and t…

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:membrane?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Water-Splitting Membrane Fig. 1. Schematic of the membrane layer of the solar fuel generation device. The membrane layer between the two semiconductor electrodes must fulfill a number of important functions for the device to split water sustainably (Fig. 1). It must simultaneously provide structural support for the wire arrays, separate the gaseous hydrogen and oxygen products, enable an ohmic conduction path for electrons between the anode and cathode, and act as an ion-exchange medium for…

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:nose?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Electronic Nose The basis for our approach involves an effort at Caltech that has recently led to arrays of simple, readily fabricated, chemically sensitive conducting polymer films. As illustrated in Figure 1 below, an array of sensors that individually respond to vapors can produce a distinguishable response pattern for each separate type of analyte or mixture (Figure 1). Pattern recognition algorithms and or neural network hardware are used on the output signals arising from the electronic n…

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:surfaces?rev=1371957409&do=diff

Silicon Surface Chemistry Many semiconductor photovoltaics do not have stable surfaces with respect to oxidation in air or liquids. Silicon, in particular, spontaneously forms oxides at its surface that degrade photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical performance. Thus, the goals of the surface chemistry subgroup are:

2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 2013-06-23T03:16:49+00:00 https://nsl.caltech.edu/internal/research:water_splitting_abstract?rev=1371957409&do=diff

The abstract page should really be fleshed out.