Proceedings of nanoGe September Meeting 2017 (NFM17)
Publication date: 20th June 2016
The efficient photoreduction of CO2 using solar energy is one of the current challenges in catalysis. Similarly to solar hydrogen, a photoelectrochemical approach can lead to a more efficient fuel production than conventional photocatalysis by a controlled charge-carrier separation and the possibility to avoid the reoxidation of the reduced CO2 products by the use of a two-compartment cell. In this work, it will be presented how the PEC approach can be competitive towards the coupling of photovoltaic devices and carbon dioxide electrolysers to became a real alternative for solar energy storage as fuels, by means of focusing on the optimization of the individual key parameters such as the electronic transference of the photoelectrode, their overpotentials to oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), carbon dioxide activation (CO2RR) and cell configuration (current distribution, electrolytes and membranes). Our PEC configuration has been a distinctive design enabling direct solar-to-fuel conversion employing a catalyst loaded GDE coupled to a photoanode within a continuous flow system. Two strategies were proposed to enhance the overall product efficiency to formate or syngas which are (i) adjustment of cathode dimensions and (ii) concentration of solar light on the photoanode. With the TiO2 photoanode, at an applied bias potential of 1.2 V, faradaic efficiencies of 40–65% for HCOO− production were obtained on the Sn cathode, reaching energy efficiencies up to 70%. When using high efficient photoanodes, such as silicon, the photovoltage can be tuned between 0.6 V and 2.4 V by connecting up to four junction cells in series and thus, allowing bias free photoelectrolyis with optimized faradaic efficiency. The presented results prove that optimized system efficiency could be obtained with a stable photoanode providing a large photovoltage for OER and a GDE cathode with improved CO2 mass transfer which paves the way towards efficient synthesis of industrial solar fuels.
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