Stand-Alone Photoelectrochemical Energy Conversions

Narayan Chandra Deb Nath, Perumal Viswanathan, Hemraj Mahipati Yadav, Kicheon Yoo, Hyeon Cheol Kang, Jae Joon Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversions of water and atmospheric CO2 to value-added fuels, such as H2, CH4, and CH3OH, can provide potential alternative sources for clean and environment-friendly solar fuels. Several efforts are reported on the designing and developing stand-alone PEC cells that efficiently produce H2 and O2 from water and minimize atmospheric CO2 via conversion to fuels under only sunlight. However, in reality, high overpotential, poor product-selectivity, competitive side-reactions, and self-reduction of a catalyst limit the performance of the PEC cells, thereby requiring high power inputs. The choice of electrode materials and architectures of PEC cells are very important for designing stand-alone and durable PEC cells with high solar-to-fuels conversion efficiency (EffSTF) and high selectivity. The present review provides a complete account of recent published works on stand-alone PEC systems with different architectures; development of electrode materials for high EffSTF, selectivity, and stability; and the current challenges. Furthermore, this review describes the future outlook on stand-alone PEC systems for future production of clean solar fuels and mitigation of atmospheric CO2 levels by utilizing only solar energy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2000517
JournalSolar RRL
Volume5
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2021

Keywords

  • CO reduction reactions
  • hydrogen evolution reactions
  • oxygen evolution reactions
  • photovoltaic cells
  • stand-alone photoelectrochemical cells

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