Catalysts for Lightweight Solar Fuels Generation
Abstract
The artificial leaf has been created to provide a simple mechanism for the storage of solar energy in the form of the chemical fuels of hydrogen and oxygen, produced from solar water splitting. The artificial leaf comprises a single crystalline Si coated with a NiMoZn or Co-P alloy as the hydrogen evolution catalyst and cobalt phosphate (CoPi) or nickel borate (NiBi) as the oxygen evolution catalyst. Modeling this buried junction architecture provided a rational framework for the design and construction of devices with solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies greater than 10 . The concept of solar fuels was advanced by coupling the functional componentry of the artificial leaf with the hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria, Ralstoniaeutropha. In this body of work, R. eutropha is used to efficiently convert carbon dioxide, along with hydrogen produced from water splitting catalysts of the artificial leaf, into biomass and fusel alcohols. In this integrated setup, equivalent solar-to-biomass yields of up to 10.2 and solar-to-liquid fuel yields of 5-7 have been achieved. These yields greatly exceed natural photosynthetic systems of crops (1 ) and microalgae(3 ). The work provides a distributed method to store solar energy in the form of fuels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 10, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1030883
Entities
People
- Daniel G. Nocera
Organizations
- President and Fellows of Harvard College