Functional metal oxide ceramics as electron transport medium in photovoltaics and photo-electrocatalysis

Abstract Renewable energy technologies, such as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting for solar fuel production and hybrid inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite solar cells as emerging alternative to current photovoltaic systems rely on functional metal oxide ceramics to achieve high photocatalytic and photovoltaic (PV) efficiencies. Despite the differences in the underlying solar energy conversion mechanisms, metal oxides facilitate exciton separation and serve as efficient electron and hole transport materials, respectively. With their ease of fabrication, natural abundance, chemical stability, structural diversity, and variable photophysical properties metal oxide ceramics become an integral component in the state-of-the-art PV and photocatalytic technologies. This chapter reviews current trends and research on metal oxide ceramics in solar to energy conversion systems, as well as highlight the underlying understanding of charge carrier dynamics in these materials to achieve highly efficient PV and photocatalytic devices.