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Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells

The present work is a short review of our recent studies on PhotoFuelCells, that is, photoelectrochemical cells which consume a fuel to produce electricity or hydrogen, and presents some unpublished data concerning both electricity and hydrogen production. PhotoFuelCells have been constructed using...

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Autores principales: Michal, Robert, Sfaelou, Stavroula, Lianos, Panagiotis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6271802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25438083
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules191219732
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author Michal, Robert
Sfaelou, Stavroula
Lianos, Panagiotis
author_facet Michal, Robert
Sfaelou, Stavroula
Lianos, Panagiotis
author_sort Michal, Robert
collection PubMed
description The present work is a short review of our recent studies on PhotoFuelCells, that is, photoelectrochemical cells which consume a fuel to produce electricity or hydrogen, and presents some unpublished data concerning both electricity and hydrogen production. PhotoFuelCells have been constructed using nanoparticulate titania photoanodes and various cathode electrodes bearing a few different types of electrocatalyst. In the case where the cell functioned with an aerated cathode, the cathode electrode was made of carbon cloth carrying a carbon paste made of carbon black and dispersed Pt nanoparticles. When the cell was operated in the absence of oxygen, the electrocatalyst was deposited on an FTO slide using a special commercial carbon paste, which was again enriched with Pt nanoparticles. Mixing of Pt with carbon paste decreased the quantity of Pt necessary to act as electrocatalyst. PhotoFuelCells can produce electricity without bias and with relatively high open-circuit voltage when they function in the presence of fuel and with an aerated cathode. In that case, titania can be sensitized in the visible region by CdS quantum dots. In the present work, CdS was deposited by the SILAR method. Other metal chalcogenides are not functional as sensitizers because the combined photoanode in their presence does not have enough oxidative power to oxidize the fuel. Concerning hydrogen production, it was found that it is difficult to produce hydrogen in an alkaline environment even under bias, however, this is still possible if losses are minimized. One way to limit losses is to short-circuit anode and cathode electrode and put them close together. This is achieved in the “photoelectrocatalytic leaf”, which was presently demonstrated capable of producing hydrogen even in a strongly alkaline environment.
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spelling pubmed-62718022018-12-28 Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells Michal, Robert Sfaelou, Stavroula Lianos, Panagiotis Molecules Article The present work is a short review of our recent studies on PhotoFuelCells, that is, photoelectrochemical cells which consume a fuel to produce electricity or hydrogen, and presents some unpublished data concerning both electricity and hydrogen production. PhotoFuelCells have been constructed using nanoparticulate titania photoanodes and various cathode electrodes bearing a few different types of electrocatalyst. In the case where the cell functioned with an aerated cathode, the cathode electrode was made of carbon cloth carrying a carbon paste made of carbon black and dispersed Pt nanoparticles. When the cell was operated in the absence of oxygen, the electrocatalyst was deposited on an FTO slide using a special commercial carbon paste, which was again enriched with Pt nanoparticles. Mixing of Pt with carbon paste decreased the quantity of Pt necessary to act as electrocatalyst. PhotoFuelCells can produce electricity without bias and with relatively high open-circuit voltage when they function in the presence of fuel and with an aerated cathode. In that case, titania can be sensitized in the visible region by CdS quantum dots. In the present work, CdS was deposited by the SILAR method. Other metal chalcogenides are not functional as sensitizers because the combined photoanode in their presence does not have enough oxidative power to oxidize the fuel. Concerning hydrogen production, it was found that it is difficult to produce hydrogen in an alkaline environment even under bias, however, this is still possible if losses are minimized. One way to limit losses is to short-circuit anode and cathode electrode and put them close together. This is achieved in the “photoelectrocatalytic leaf”, which was presently demonstrated capable of producing hydrogen even in a strongly alkaline environment. MDPI 2014-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6271802/ /pubmed/25438083 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules191219732 Text en © 2014 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Michal, Robert
Sfaelou, Stavroula
Lianos, Panagiotis
Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells
title Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells
title_full Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells
title_fullStr Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells
title_full_unstemmed Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells
title_short Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production Using PhotoFuelCells
title_sort photocatalysis for renewable energy production using photofuelcells
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6271802/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25438083
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules191219732
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