Stability and Performance of Sulfide-, Nitride-, and Phosphide-Based Electrodes for Photocatalytic Solar Water Splitting.

With the past decade of worldwide sustained efforts on artificial photosynthesis for photocatalytic solar water splitting and clean hydrogen generation by dedicated researchers and engineers from different disciplines, substantial progress has been achieved in raising its overall efficiency along with finding new photocatalysts. Various materials, systems, devices, and better fundamental understandings of the interplay between interfacial chemistry, electronic structure, and photogenerated charge dynamics involved have been developed. Nevertheless, the overall photocatalytic performance is yet to achieve its maximum theoretical limit. Moreover, the stability of well-known semiconductors (as well as novel ones) remains the biggest challenge that scientists are facing to develop durable industrial-scale devices for large-scale water oxidation and overall solar water splitting. In this Perspective, we summarize the major achievements and the different approaches carried out to improve the stability and performance of photoelectrodes based on sulfide, nitride, and phosphide semiconductors.