[ad_1]
Researchers from Rice University have developed an efficient and economical device that breaks down water to generate hydrogen fuel..
The laboratory at Jun Lou’s Brown School of Engineering, a materials scientist at Rice, has designed this platform, which combines perovskite solar cells and catalytic electrodes that generate electricity when activated by sunlight. When streams flow into catalysts, they break water down into oxygen and hydrogen, with a sunlight-to-hydrogen efficiency of up to 6.7%.
Although catalysis of this type is very common, the researchers integrated the electrodes and a perovskite layer into a single module that generates hydrogen without further input when immersed in water and exposed to sunlight.
The platform launched by Lou, lead author and postdoctoral fellow Rice Jia Liang together with her collaborators in the American Chemical Society magazine ACS Nano It is a self-sufficient fuel synthesizer that must be easy to mass-produce.
The concept is broadly similar to an artificial sheet.. What we have is an integrated module that converts sunlight into electricity that drives an electrochemical reaction. Use water and sunlight to obtain chemical fuels..
Jun Lou, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University
Perovskites are crystals that have cube lattices with the ability to harness light. To date, the most efficient perovskite solar cells have an efficiency of more than 25%, but the materials are expensive and stressed by heat, humidity and light.
Jia has replaced the more expensive components, such as platinum, in perovskite solar cells with alternatives such as carbon. That lowers the barrier to entry for commercial adoption. Integrated devices like this are promising because they create a system that is sustainable. This does not require any external power supply to keep the module running..
Jun Lou, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University
According to Liang, perovskite may not be the main component, but the surrounding polymer, which protects the module and allows it to be submerged for longer periods.
Lou said:Others have developed catalytic systems that connect the solar cell out of the water to electrodes submerged with a cable.. We simplify the system by encapsulating the perovskite layer with a Surlyn (polymer) film. “
Liang added, the patterned film allows sunlight to reach the solar cell while protecting it and acting as an insulator between electrodes and cells.
With an intelligent system design, you can cycle self-sufficient.. Even when there is no sunlight, you can use the stored energy in the form of chemical fuel. You can put the hydrogen and oxygen products in separate tanks and incorporate another module like a fuel cell to convert those fuels into electricity..
Jun Lou, Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University
The scientists stated that they will continue to improve the encapsulation method, as well as solar cells to increase the efficiency of the modules.
The study’s co-authors are Rice’s former visiting students, Xiao Han, who is now an associate professor at Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi’an, China, and Yunxiu Qiu, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis; Rice graduate students Qiyi Fang and Boyu Zhang; Former Weipeng Wang rice student, now an assistant professor at Tsinghua University.
The study also involved Rice’s postdoctoral researcher Jing Zhang; and Pulickel Ajayan, chairman of Rice’s Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Professor of Engineering Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson and professor of chemistry.
The study was financially supported by the Peter M. and Ruth L. Nicholas Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nanotechnology from the Rice Smalley-Curl Institute, the Welch Foundation, the Nanosystem Engineering Research Center supported by the National Science Foundation for the Treatment of Water with Nanotechnology and Fundamental Research Funds for central universities, China.
Magazine reference:
Liang, J., et al (2020) A low-cost, high-efficiency integrated device for dividing water by solar energy. ACS Nano. doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b09053.
