A Low-Cost and High-Efficiency Integrated Device toward Solar-Driven Water Splitting
Abstract
Achieving the spontaneous evolution of fuel from integrated devices by solar-driven water splitting is an attractive method for renewable energy conversion. However, their widespread implementation is hindered by their immature architectures and inferior performances. Here, we propose a real integrated device consisting of two series-connected perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and two CoP catalyst electrodes, which can be immersed into the aqueous solution directly for solar-driven water splitting. Benefiting from the low-cost and facile encapsulation technique, this integrated device possesses a compact structure and well-connected circuits for the process of charge carriers generation, transfer, and storage. Moreover, although all expensive components in this integrated device are eliminated, the two series-connected carbon-based PSCs still exhibit a high solar-to-electric efficiency of 10.6% as well as the integrated devices display a solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of as high as 6.7%. This integrated device serves as a model architecture toward future development and optimization of the integrated device that can be immersed into the aqueous solution directly for water splitting.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Liang et al. reported an integrated device with PSC and electrocatalyst electrodes constructed on a single substrate.
“Liang et al. [240] reported an integrated device with PSC and electrocatalyst electrodes constructed on a single substrate.”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [240]
The operating current density (Jop) of the integrated device is determined to be 5.5 mA cm-2.
“The operating current density (J op ) of the integrated device is determined to be 5.5 mA cm -2 (Figure 8h).”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [240]
The CoP nanorods require an overpotential of 1.74 V to attain a current density of 10 mA cm-2, and after 5 h they maintain ≈98% of the initial current.
“The overpotential required for the CoP nanorods to attain a current density of 10 mA cm -2 is 1.74 V, and even after 5 h, they maintain ≈98% of the initial current, demonstrating robust stability as anode for the OER and cathode for the HER.”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [240]
Two PSCs connected in series enhance the input potential for water-splitting, resulting in a Voc of 1.86 V and a high STE efficiency of 10.61%.
“Two PSCs are connected in series to enhance the input potential for water-splitting, resulting in a V oc of 1.86 V and a high STE efficiency of 10.61%.”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [240]
Long-term stability testing shows the current density of the integrated device degrading to ≈77% of its initial value within 700 s.
“J op , slightly lower than 5.5 mA cm -2 , is confirmed in Figure 8i, and long-term stability testing shows the current density degrading to ≈77% of its initial value within 700 s (Figure 8j).”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [240]
The PSC adopts a structure of FTO glass/c-TiO2/m-TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3/carbon and achieves a solar-to-electric (STE) efficiency of 13.0% (Jsc = 20.5 mA cm-2, Voc = 0.98 V, FF = 0.64) under AM 1.5G solar illumination.
“The PSC adopts a structure of FTO glass/c-TiO 2 /m-TiO 2 /CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 /carbon and achieves a remarkable solar-toelectric (STE) efficiency of 13.0% (J sc = 20.5 mA cm -2 , V oc = 0.98 V, and FF = 0.64) under AM 1.5G solar illumination, with protection provided by a surlyn film encapsulation.”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [240]
Cites
Highly Active Electrocatalysis of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction by Cobalt Phosphide Nanoparticles
Popczun, E. J., Read, C. G., Roske, C. W., Lewis, N. S., & Schaak, R. E. (2014) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.201402646 · Cited by 1,240 · see citing works
You, B., Jiang, N., Sheng, M., Gul, S., Yano, J., & Sun, Y. (2015) · Chemistry of Materials · doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b02877 · Cited by 631 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Progress and Perspectives for Solar‐Driven Water Electrolysis to Produce Green Hydrogen
Zhao, H., & Yuan, Z. (2023) · Advanced Energy Materials · doi:10.1002/aenm.202300254 · Cited by 240 · see citing works
Fehr, A. M. K., Agrawal, A., Mandani, F., Conrad, C. L., Jiang, Q., Park, S. Y., Alley, O., Li, B., Sidhik, S., Metcalf, I., et al. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39290-y · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Riyajuddin, S., Pahuja, M., Sachdeva, P. K., Azmi, K., Kumar, S., Afshan, M., Ali, F., Sultana, J., Maruyama, T., Bera, C., et al. (2022) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.2c00466 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis
Ock, I. W., Yin, J., Wang, S., Zhao, X., Baik, J. M., & Chen, J. (2025) · Advanced Energy Materials · doi:10.1002/aenm.202400563 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
- Authors
- Liang, J., Han, X., Qiu, Y., Fang, Q., Zhang, B., Wang, W., Zhang, J., Ajayan, P. M., & Lou, J.
- Affiliations
- Rice University (US)
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Lou, Jun
- Venue
- ACS Nano
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2020-04-29
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 5426-5434
- ISSN
- 1936-0851 (ISSN-L)
- 1936-086X
- OpenAlex
- W3020062502
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 1.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- ACS Nano (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Welch Foundation (C-1716)
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (3102019QD0418, 3102019ZD0402)
- NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (ERC-1449500)
- Peter M. and Ruth L. Nicholas Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nanotechnology from Smalley-Curl Institute at Rice University (H21065)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Perovskite Materials and Applications
- Keywords
- solar water splitting, perovskite solar cells, integrated devices, series-connected solar cells, solar-to-hydrogen efficiency, solar-to-electric efficiency, low-cost photovoltaics, charge carrier transfer
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
