Band alignment study of the Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$TaO$_2$N / H$_2$O interface for photoelectrochemical devices and Hydrogen production

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to analyze the band alignment of Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$TaO$_2$N / H$_2$O interfaces, demonstrating their suitability for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production and how substitution tuning improves performance.

Contribution

It provides a detailed, validated methodology for band alignment analysis of oxynitride/water interfaces, highlighting the impact of Ca substitution on device efficiency.

Findings

Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$TaO$_2$N / H$_2$O interface is suitable for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production.

Partial Ca substitution tunes the band gap and alignment, enhancing performance.

Theoretical results agree with experimental data, validating the approach.

Abstract

Hydrogen is one of the most promising candidates for clean energy production. Photoelectrochemical devices look promising for the decomposition of the water molecule into 2H$_2$ + O$_2$. Oxynitrides, like the solid solution Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$O$_2$N, are good candidates due to the low band gap that lies into the maximum zone of the solar radiation spectrum. A necessary condition for the photoelectrochemical process to work without a bias voltage is that the minimum of the semiconductor conduction band must be more positive than the reduction potential H$^+$ to H$_2$, whereas the maximum of the semiconductor valence band must be more negative than the oxidation potential of H$_2$O to O$_2$. Thus, band alignment studies in interfaces of semiconductors with water become of great importance. They present several subtleties, as different or simplistic modelling will result in few decimes of eV difference that would lead to a wrong prediction in the alignment. So, to find a trustful method is desirable. In this work, first principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) in the all electron and the pseudopotential approaches have been performed for the analysis of the band alignment in Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$O$_2$N /H$_2$O interfaces. A detailed study of the modelling of the surface, supercells, and interface with water molecules was done. Experimental data were taken for the structures and photoelectrochemical behaviour and well reproduced by the methodology implemented. The analysis carried out led to theoretical results compatible with the experimental results: the calculations show that the Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$O$_2$N /H$_2$O is suitable for photoelectrochemical applications, and the partial substitution of Sr by Ca enables the gap and alignment tuning thus enhancing the complex performance.