A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist and collaborators are fine tuning the mechanisms to generate hydrogen from water and sunlight.
Hydrogen production offers a promising approach for producing scalable and sustainable carbon-free energy. The key to a successful solar-to-fuel technology is the design of efficient, long-lasting and low-cost photoelectrochemical cells (PECs), which are responsible for absorbing sunlight and driving water-splitting reactions.
LLNL's Lawrence Fellow Anh Pham, Assistant Professor Yuan Ping from the University of California at Santa Cruz and Professor Giulia Galli from the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory reviewed the use of first-principles methods to understand the interfaces between photoabsorbers, electrolytes and catalysts in PECs.
The key to building an efficient PEC relies on the availability of abundant semiconducting photoelectrode materials that are responsible for absorbing sunlight and driving water-splitting reactions.
"Despite steady efforts and some breakthroughs, no single material has yet been found that simultaneously satisfies the efficiency and stability required for the commercialization of PEC hydrogen production technology," Pham said.
The research appears in the Jan. 9 edition of the journal Nature Materials.
The team shows that with growing complexity of PEC architectures, understanding the properties of the interfaces between its components is key to predict novel, better performing materials and eventually to optimize the device performance.
In this study, the team discussed open challenges in describing PEC interfaces using first-principles techniques, focusing on the interplay between their structural and electronic properties. The scientists also reviewed first-principles techniques relevant for the study of solid-liquid interfaces, the structural and electronic properties of photoelectrode-water and photoelectrode-catalyst water interfaces and open theoretical challenges in the simulation of PEC interfaces.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation Centers for Chemical Innovation grant(link is external) and the Lawrence Fellowship.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
#RenewableEnergy #Energy #MaterialScience
A eutectic mixture of methylammonium chloride and a zinc halide melts at about 100 degrees Celsius, forming a transient liquid layer at perovskite grain boundaries that lets crystals merge into larger, cleaner grains. The resulting films reached a carrier lifetime of roughly 295 microseconds and a surface recombination velocity of 0.3 cm/s, the lowest reported for lead halide perovskites.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have directly observed hydrogen dissolved in the interstitial spaces between metal atoms in alloys, a world first. Using cryogenic atom probe tomography with deuterium tracers, electron microscopy and theoretical calculations, the team showed hydrogen occupies sites between atoms rather than only collecting at defects, and that local atomic arrangement and chemistry dictate where it prefers to reside.
Researchers have developed carbon dots whose fluorescence shifts across the visible spectrum, from blue to red, depending on concentration, liquid environment and acidity. By tuning the particles' surfaces, the team produced versions that change color reversibly as pH shifts, then incorporated them into polymer powders, molded shapes and flexible films.
This week in nanotech
$13.6M raised
3 funding rounds · 20 deals tracked
New products
Nion-compatible In Situ STEM Holders for Electrical BiasingHummingbird Scientific Featured
Ti-WCMBN Nanomaterialia Featured
GHK-CuPeoples PepsMarket insights
Last 30 days: Quantum Technologies was the busiest vertical: 61 of 192 events (32%).
Money raised per month
