Screen-printed Hole Transport Material-free perovskite solar cell for water splitting incorporating Cu-NiCo₂O₄ catalyst

Water splitting has gained significant attention in recent years as a greener alternative for harvesting energy. In this report, we utilize screen-printed Hole Transport Material (HTM) free single junction perovskite solar cell with an open circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.9 V for direct water splitting. Further, we extend this concept to incorporate three different earth-abundant materials: copper, copper-nickel, and copper-nickel–cobalt oxide, as catalysts in a 1 M Potassium hydroxide (KOH) electrolyte solution, along with a perovskite solar cell for water splitting. Among these, the perovskite solar cell with a copper-nickel–cobalt oxide catalyst shows the best performance with 0.98 mA/cm² photocurrent density and 1.2% solar to hydrogen efficiency at no applied bias, i.e., 0 V vs Reverse Hydrogen Electrode (RHE).