{"id":705,"date":"2023-07-24T05:26:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T05:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apers.ro\/?p=705"},"modified":"2023-07-24T05:26:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T05:26:15","slug":"record-breaking-solar-hydrogen-device-turning-sunlight-into-clean-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apers.ro\/en\/2023\/07\/24\/record-breaking-solar-hydrogen-device-turning-sunlight-into-clean-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Record-Breaking Solar Hydrogen Device: Turning Sunlight Into Clean Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New standard for green hydrogen technology set by Rice University engineers<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t
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Rice University engineers can turn sunlight into hydrogen with record-breaking efficiency thanks to a device that combines next-generation\u00a0halide perovskite semiconductors\u00a0with electrocatalysts in a single, durable, cost-effective and scalable device.<\/p>\n

The new technology is a significant step forward for clean energy and could serve as a platform for a wide range of chemical reactions that use solar-harvested electricity to convert feedstocks into fuels.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]\n\t\t

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Revolutionary Photoreactor Design<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Aditya Mohite\u2019s lab, specializing in chemical and biomolecular engineering, spearheaded the construction of this integrated photoreactor. A key element in the device\u2019s design is an anticorrosion barrier that effectively insulates the semiconductor from water without impeding electron transfer. As reported in a study published in\u00a0Nature Communications<\/span><\/em>, the device boasts an impressive 20.8% solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Austin Fehr, a chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student and one of the lead authors of the study, emphasized the importance of this work. \u201cUsing sunlight as an energy source to manufacture chemicals is one of the largest hurdles to a clean energy economy. Our goal is to build economically feasible platforms that can generate solar-derived fuels. Here, we designed a system that absorbs light and completes electrochemical water-splitting chemistry on its surface.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]\n\t\t

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Overcoming Challenges With Photoelectrochemical Cells<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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The device is known as a photoelectrochemical cell because the absorption of light, its conversion into electricity and the use of the electricity to power a chemical reaction all occur in the same device. Until now, using photoelectrochemical technology to produce green hydrogen was hampered by low efficiencies and the high cost of semiconductors.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fehr explained the distinction of their invention: \u201cAll devices of this type produce green hydrogen using only sunlight and water, but ours is exceptional because it has record-breaking efficiency and it uses a semiconductor that is very cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]\n\t\t

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Innovation Journey and Future Perspectives<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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The Mohite lab and its collaborators created the device by turning their\u00a0highly-competitive solar cell\u00a0into a reactor that could use harvested energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. The challenge they had to overcome was that halide perovskites are extremely unstable in water and coatings used to insulate the semiconductors ended up either disrupting their function or damaging them.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cOver the last two years, we\u2019ve gone back and forth trying different materials and techniques,\u201d said Michael Wong, a Rice chemical engineer and co-author on the study.<\/p>\n

After lengthy trials failed to yield the desired result, the researchers finally came across a winning solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur key insight was that you needed two layers to the barrier, one to block the water and one to make good electrical contact between the perovskite layers and the protective layer,\u201d Fehr said. \u201cOur results are the highest efficiency for photoelectrochemical cells without solar concentration, and the best overall for those using halide perovskite semiconductors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a first for a field that has historically been dominated by prohibitively expensive semiconductors, and may represent a pathway to commercial feasibility for this type of device for the first time ever,\u201d Fehr said.<\/p>\n

The researchers showed their barrier design worked for different reactions and with different semiconductors, making it applicable across many systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that such systems will serve as a platform for driving a wide range of electrons to fuel-forming reactions using abundant feedstocks with only sunlight as the energy input,\u201d Mohite said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith further improvements to stability and scale, this technology could open up the hydrogen economy and change the way humans make things from fossil fuel to solar fuel,\u201d Fehr added.<\/p>\n

Rice graduate students Ayush Agrawal and Faiz Mandani are lead authors on the study alongside Fehr. The work was also authored in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC for the Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC36-08GO28308.<\/p>\n

Mohite is an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the faculty director of the Rice Engineering Initiative for Energy Transition and Sustainability, or REINVENTS. Wong is the Tina and Sunit Patel Professor in Molecular Nanotechnology, chair and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and a professor of chemistry, materials science and nanotechnology, as well as civil and environmental engineering.<\/p>\n

The research was supported by the Department of Energy (DE-EE0008843), SARIN Energy Inc. and Rice\u2019s Shared Equipment Authority.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_zigzag]\t\t

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Source<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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