Toward a Low-Cost Artificial Leaf : Driving Carbon-Based and Bifunctional Catalyst Electrodes with Solution-Processed Perovskite Photovoltaics

• Molecular hydrogen can be generated renewably by water splitting with an artificial-leaf device, which essentially comprises two electrocatalyst electrodes immersed in water and powered by photovoltaics. Ideally, this device should operate efficiently and be fabricated with cost-efficient means using earth-abundant materials. Here, a lightweight electrocatalyst electrode, comprising large surface-area NiCo2O4 nanorods that are firmly anchored onto a carbon-paper current collector via a dense network of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes is presented. This electrocatalyst electrode is bifunctional in that it can efficiently operate as both anode and cathode in the same alkaline solution, as quantified by a delivered current density of 10 mA cm(-2) at an overpotential of 400 mV for each of the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. By driving two such identical electrodes with a solution-processed thin-film perovskite photovoltaic assembly, a wired artificial-leaf device is obtained that features a Faradaic H-2 evolution efficiency of 100%, and a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 6.2%. A detailed cost analysis is presented, which implies that the material-payback time of this device is of the order of 100 days.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Fysikalisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Physical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Den kondenserade materiens fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Condensed Matter Physics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Biokemi och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

artificial-leaf devices

bifunctional electrocatalyst

carbon paper

nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes

perovskite photovoltaics

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)