Wednesday, March 26, 2014

ALD saving the sunshine for night: solar fuels from artificial photosynthesis

As reported by Thomas Meyer and Ralph House "Saving the sunshine for night: solar fuels from artificial photosynthesis", direct visible light water splitting in a dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthesis cell makes hydrogen for energy storage. Key findings using a stable catalyst is reported by binding on the surface of conducting nano ITO electrodes, they first bind the catalyst to the surface and then stabilize it by ALD of a TiO2 overlayer to prevent hydrolysis.

Dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthesis cell (DSPEC) for water splitting. The inset illustrates the surface-bound chromophore-catalyst assembly (shown as orange dots on the spherical nanoparticles in the core/shell film). H2O: Water. O2: Oxygen. H2: Hydrogen. H+: Hydrogen cation. (Graphic by Yan Liang, L2Molecule.com, as reported in the SPIE news blog)


Read all about it here or check out the original work in these refrences:

T. J. Meyer, J. M. Papanikolas, C. M. Heyer, Solar fuels and next generation photovoltaics: the UNC-CH Energy Frontier Research Center, Cat. Lett. 141(1), p. 1-7, 2011. doi:10.1007/s10562-010-0495-9
 
R. House, L. Alibabaei, C. Bonino, P. Hoertz, J. Trainham, T. J. Meyer, Let the molecules do the work, PV Magazine 03/2013, p. 87-89, 2013.
 
A. K. Vannucci, L. Alibabaei, M. D. Losego, J. J. Concepcion, B. Kalanyan, G. N. Parsons, T. J. Meyer, Crossing the divide between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis in water oxidation, Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA 110(52), p. 20918, 2013. doi:10.1073/Pnas.1319832110
 
L. Alibabaei, M. K. Brennaman, M. R. Norris, B. Kalanyan, W. J. Song, M. D. Losego, J. J. Concepcion, R. A. Binstead, G. N. Parsons, T. J. Meyer, Solar water splitting in a molecular photoelectrochemical cell, Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA 110(50), p. 20008, 2013. doi:10.1073/Pnas.1319628110

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