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A solar fuel is a synthetic chemical fuel produced from solar energy. Solar fuels can be produced through photochemical (i.e. activation of certain chemical reactions by photons), photobiological (i.e., artificial photosynthesis), and electrochemical reactions (i.e. using the electricity from solar panels to drive a chemical reaction). Solar fuels can also be produced by thermochemical reactions (i.e., through the use of solar heat supplied by concentrated solar thermal energy to drive a chemical reaction). Light is used as an energy source, with solar energy being transduced to chemical energy, typically by reducing protons to hydrogen, or carbon dioxide to organic compounds. A solar fuel can be produced and stored for later use, when sunlight is not available, making it an alternative to fossil fuels and batteries. Examples of such fuels are hydrogen, ammonia, and hydrazine. Diverse photocatalysts are being developed to carry these reactions in a sustainable, environmentally f

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Photo‐Electrochemical Conversion of CO 2 Under Concentrated Sunlight Enables Combination of High Reaction Rate and Efficiency

Etienne Boutin, Sophia Haussener, Mahendra Patel, Silvan Suter

Photo-electrochemical production of solar fuels from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight is an appealing approach. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to scale despite encouraging demonstrations at low power input. Higher current densities require notable voltage input as ohmic losses and activation overpotentials become more significant, resulting in lower solar-to-CO conversion efficiencies. A concentrated photovoltaic cell is integrated into a custom-made heat managed photo-electrochemical device. The heat is transferred from the photovoltaic module to the zero-gap electrolyzer cell by the stream of anodic reactant and produce synergetic effects on both sides. With solar concentrations up to 450 suns (i.e., 450 kW m−2) applied for the first time to photo-electrochemical reduction of CO2, a partial current for CO production of 4 A is achieved. At optimal conditions, the solar-to-CO conversion efficiency reaches 17% while maintaining a current density of 150 mA cm−2 in the electrolyzer and a CO selectivity above 90%, representing an overall 19% solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency. This study represents a first demonstration of photo-electrochemical CO2 reduction under highly concentrated light, paving the way for resource efficient solar fuel production at high power input.

Wiley2022

Between photocatalysis and photosynthesis: Synchrotron spectroscopy methods on molecules and materials for solar hydrogen generation

Artur Braun, Michael Graetzel, Jin Guo, Yelin Hu

Energy research is to a large extent materials research, encompassing the physics and chemistry of materials, including their synthesis, processing toward components and design toward architectures, allowing for their functionality as energy devices, extending toward their operation parameters and environment, including also their degradation, limited life, ultimate failure and potential recycling. In all these stages, X-ray and electron spectroscopy are helpful methods for analysis, characterization and diagnostics for the engineer and for the researcher working in basic science.This paper gives a short overview of experiments with X-ray and electron spectroscopy for solar energy and water splitting materials and addresses also the issue of solar fuel, a relatively new topic in energy research. The featured systems are iron oxide and tungsten oxide as photoanodes, and hydrogenases as molecular systems. We present surface and subsurface studies with ambient pressure XPS and hard X-ray XPS, resonant photoemission, light induced effects in resonant photoemission experiments and a photo-electrochemical in situ/operando NEXAFS experiment in a liquid cell, and nuclear resonant vibrational spectroscopy (NRVS). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Elsevier2013

Solvent-induced surface hydroxylation of a layered perovskite Sr3FeCoO7−δ for enhanced oxygen evolution catalysis

Jun Gu, Xile Hu, Fang Song, Xiang Xu, Kongliang Xu

Efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts made of earth abundant elements are essential for the cost-effective generation of solar fuels. Surface modification is a novel strategy to enhance the activity of OER catalysts, however, it is commonly done under harsh and energy intensive conditions. Herein, we present a facile approach of solvent treatment to hydroxylate the surface of a layered perovskite, Sr3FeCoO7−δ. The catalytic activity correlates with the degree of surface hydroxylation, which influences the absorption energy of intermediates on the surface. The optimized catalyst exhibits higher activity than the current benchmark perovskite OER catalysts. This work introduces a mild and convenient method for surface modification, which may be applicable for the improvement of other nanoscale electrocatalysts.

2018

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