Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, July 23 / PRNewswire-Asianet /-- engineers at Rice University in the United States have developed a device that can convert sunlight into hydrogen with a new record efficiency. This device is a photoelectrochemical cell, which uses a new generation of halide perovskite semiconductors and electrocatalysts, which can use solar energy to drive various chemical reactions and convert raw materials into fuel.

This new technology is an important advance in clean energy and a potential platform for using solar energy to make chemicals. The key to the design of the device is an anticorrosive coating, which can effectively isolate semiconductors from water without affecting the transfer of electrons.

The device has an astonishing 20.8% efficiency of converting solar energy to hydrogen, according to a study published in Nature Communications. Austin Fehr, a doctoral student in chemistry and biomolecule engineering at Rice University and one of the lead authors of the study, stressed the importance of this work: "the use of solar energy as an energy source for the manufacture of chemicals is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving a clean energy economy. Our goal is to build an economically viable platform that can generate solar-derived fuel. We have designed a system that absorbs light and performs electrochemical water decomposition on its surface. "

According to CTOnews.com, the device is called a photoelectrochemical cell because it absorbs light, converts it into electricity and uses electricity to drive chemical reactions in the same device. In the past, the use of photoelectrochemical technology to produce green hydrogen was limited by low efficiency and high semiconductor costs.

Fehr explained the features of their invention: "all such devices use only sunlight and water to produce green hydrogen, but our device is special because it is record efficient and it uses a very cheap semiconductor."

The device was developed by a lab led by Professor Aditya Mohite and its collaborators, who transformed their highly competitive solar cells into a reactor that uses the collected energy to break down water into oxygen and hydrogen. The challenge they have to overcome is that halide perovskite is extremely unstable in water and that the coating used to isolate semiconductors can interfere with or damage them.

"in the past two years, we have tried different materials and technologies." Said Professor Michael Wong, a chemical engineer at Rice University and a co-author of the study. After a long attempt, the researchers finally found a successful solution.

"our key finding is that two protective layers are needed, one to block water and the other to form good electrical contact between the perovskite layer and the protective layer," Fehr said. Our result is the highest efficiency in photoelectrochemical cells and the best effect of using halide perovskite semiconductors. This is a breakthrough because the field has always been dominated by expensive semiconductors and may be the first time such devices have become commercially viable. "

The researchers showed that their protective layer design can be applied to different reactions and different semiconductors, so that it can be applied to a variety of systems. "We hope that such a system can serve as a platform to use electrons collected by solar energy to drive various reactions that use rich raw materials to make fuel." Professor Mohite said: "with the further improvement of stability and scale, this technology can open up the hydrogen economy and change the human mode of production from fossil fuels to solar fuels." Fehr added.

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