Photo-electrochemical water-splitting is a promising method of clean hydrogen production for green energy uses. Here, we report on a tin-based oxide perovskite combined
with an overlayer that shows enhanced bifunctional hydrogen and oxygen evolution. In
our first-principles study of tin based perovskites, based upon Density Functional ...
Photo-electrochemical water-splitting is a promising method of clean hydrogen production for green energy uses. Here, we report on a tin-based oxide perovskite combined
with an overlayer that shows enhanced bifunctional hydrogen and oxygen evolution. In
our first-principles study of tin based perovskites, based upon Density Functional Theory, we investigate how the formation of a surface affects the electronic properties of
these materials. We show that the best candidate, SrSnO3, possesses hydrogen and
oxygen overpotentials of 0.75 and 0.72 eV, respectively, which are reduced to 0.35 and
0.54 eV with the inclusion of a ZrO2 overlayer. Furthermore, this overlayer promotes
charge extraction, stabilises the reaction pathways and improves the band gap such
that it straddles the overpotentials between pH 0 and pH 12. This result indicates that
SrSnO3 with a ZrO2 overlayer has significant potential as a highly efficient bifunctional
water-splitter for producing hydrogen and oxygen gas on the same surface