Hydrogen produced from water using solar light is a clean, renewable, and sustainable energy, which can solve the shortage of fossil fuel and the environmental problems what we will be confronted in the future. Solar energy is a form of electromagnetic radiation which is available over a wide spectral range (300-2100nm). The radiation needs to be converted into an energy form suitable for our needs. The solar radiation can be converted into a chemical energy like H2 by a photoelectrochemical cell(PEC cell). It is very important because of its potential to produce H2 from water using solar light. The energy more than of 1.23eV is needed for water splitting reaction. But pure water does not adsorb solar radiation except in the infrared, where photon energies are too low to split water. Semiconducting materials used as electrodes can absorb solar radiation and make charges, which have energies depending on size of the band gap. Water splitting can take place on the electrodes, where the charges have energy enough to produce hydrogen.
A PEC cell is fabricated using a electrode absorbing the solar light, two catalytic films, membrane separating of H2 and O2.We have obtained solar to hydrogen efficiency of about 9 percent in the PEC cell, which is fabricated using silicon electrode, nickel ferrite, and Pt mesh in the 1M NaOH solution. The efficiency is evaluated from the energy illuminated on the electrode surface and hydrogen energy produced. The cell size is 12x12cm2 and the light intensity is 100mW/cm2.