Publications related to Solar fuel

Assessing the Charge Carrier Dynamics at Hybrid Interfaces of Organic Photoanodes for Solar Fuels

Kevin Sivula, Yongpeng Liu, Han-Hee Cho, Alexander Wieczorek

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have emerged as promising active layers for photoanodes to drive photoelectrochemical (PEC) oxidation reactions. Interfacing an OSC with an inorganic electron transport layer (ETL) is key to enabling both high performance and ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Reversible photo-electrochemical device for solar hydrogen and power generation

Sophia Haussener, Saurabh Yuvraj Tembhurne, Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry, Matthieu Jonin, Mahendra Patel

A reversible photo-electrochemical device operating under concentrated irradiation could offer a stand-alone solution for producing solar fuel (in photo-driven electrolysis mode) and power (in fuel cell mode). This strategy would present the advantage of h ...

2024

Modeling, design and economics of PEC devices

Alexandre Dominique M. Cattry

Photo-electrochemical (PEC) devices allow for converting solar energy into chemical energy and for the production of energetically dense solar fuels. Light absorption, charge separation and transport, electrochemical reactions, and ionic transport are requ ...

EPFL2024

Plasmonic Nanostructures for Photocatalysis: Material, Photonic and Electronic Effects

Fateme Kiani Shahvandi

Plasmonic photochemistry has a large potential to replace energy-intensive chemical processes with low-temperature, low-pressure light-driven chemical reactions. Plasmonic nanostructures have emerged as promising photocatalysts with exceptional and tunable ...

EPFL2024

Stability and degradation of (oxy)nitride photocatalysts for solar water splitting

Sophia Haussener, Franky Esteban Bedoya Lora

Advancing towards alternative technologies for the sustainable production of hydrogen is a necessity for the successful integration of this potentially green fuel in the future. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting are promising concepts ...

2024

Perspective Alkaline electrolyzers: Powering industries and overcoming fundamental challenges

Hubert Girault

For the sustainable development of the renewable hydrogen sector, alkaline electrolysis appears to be a technology of choice. Nevertheless, despite its long history that showed its reliability in the industrial field and despite the traditional belief from ...

Cell Press2024

Phase-stable indium sulfide achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 14.3% for solar-assisted carbon dioxide reduction to formate

Michael Graetzel, Jing Gao, Jingshan Luo, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jun Li, Qixing Zhang

Tremendous efforts have been made in developing highly selective catalysts for electrochemical CO 2 conversion to formate. However, the rapid deactivation resulting from structural reconstruction and phase transition poses considerable challenges to the sy ...

Cell Press2024

Atomic level insight into irradiation effects in nuclear fuel materials

Shaileyee Bhattacharya

Microstructural evolution during in-pile irradiation, radiation damage effects and fission products behavior in UO2 nuclear fuel are key issues in understanding and for the modeling of the performance as well as safety characteristics of nuclear fuels in t ...

EPFL2024

Floating platform for a wind turbine

Anastasios Vassilopoulos

A floating platform for a wind turbine comprising a vertically arranged support; a toroidal body arranged horizontally and coaxially around said support; a plurality of connection elements which extends radially to connect the support to the toroidal body, ...

2023

Photoelectrochemical Cell Engineering for Solar Energy Conversion

Dan Zhang

Solar energy is the most abundant energy source, harnessing solar energy holds the solution to the challenge of increasing global energy demand and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Photovoltaics which directly convert solar energy into electricity ...

EPFL2023

Anion Exchange Membranes for Hydrogen Technologies: Challenges and Progress

Xile Hu, Xingyu Wu

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) are considered one of the most promising and efficient hydrogen conversion technologies due to their ability to use cost-effective materials. However, AEMFCs are still in an early stage of development and the lac ...

SWISS CHEMICAL SOC2023

In situ construction of graphdiyne based heterojunctions by a deprotection-free approach for photocatalytic hydrogen generation

Cong Wang, Jian Li

Graphdiyne (GDY) with a direct bandgap, high charge carrier mobility, and ordered pore structure, is considered an excellent matrix for the construction of heterojunction photocatalysts. However, the traditional fabrication methods for GDY-based heterojunc ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2023

In Search of Covalent Organic Framework Photocatalysts: A DFT-Based Screening Approach

Berend Smit, Beatriz Bueno Mouriño, Kevin Maik Jablonka, Andres Adolfo Ortega Guerrero

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) stand out as prospective organic-based photocatalysts given their intriguing optoelectronic properties, such as visible light absorption and high charge-carrier mobility. The "Clean, Uniform, Refined with Automatic Tracki ...

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2023

A holistic investigation of photocatalytic hydrogen generation

Sangram Ashok Savant

Photocatalytic (PC) solar hydrogen production is a promising way to provide green hydrogen using only sunlight and abundant reactants such as water. PC approaches use catalytically active semiconductor particles suspended in liquid electrolytes. The partic ...

EPFL2023

Integrated production of urea and nitric acid in the pulp industry: techno-economic and environmental analysis of black liquor gasification-based processes

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Shivom Sharma, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos

The pursuit of alternative energy sources for the nitrogen fertilizers sector has recently earned renewed interest due to increasing concerns regarding the world dependence on non-renewable energy resources and also motivated by the more stringent environm ...

2022

Kilowatt-scale solar hydrogen production system using a concentrated integrated photoelectrochemical device

Sophia Haussener, Saurabh Yuvraj Tembhurne, Clemens Gregor Suter, Isaac Thomas Holmes-Gentle

The production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from solar energy and abundant reagents offers a promising pathway to a sustainable fuel economy and chemical industry. For the production of hydrogen, photoelectrochemical or integrated photovoltaic and elec ...

2023

Solar fuel processing: Comparative mini-review on research, technology development, and scaling

Sophia Haussener

Solar energy provides an unprecedented potential as a renewable and sustainable energy resource and will substantially reshape our future energy economy. It is not only useful in producing electricity but also (high-temperature) heat and fuel, both require ...

2022

Photo‐Electrochemical Conversion of CO 2 Under Concentrated Sunlight Enables Combination of High Reaction Rate and Efficiency

Sophia Haussener, Etienne Boutin, Mahendra Patel, Silvan Suter

Photo-electrochemical production of solar fuels from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight is an appealing approach. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to scale despite encouraging demonstrations at low power input. Higher current densities require notable ...

Wiley2022

Enhanced Solar-to-Fuel Efficiency of Ceria-Based Thermochemical Cycles via Integrated Electrochemical Oxygen Pumping

Sophia Haussener, Clemens Gregor Suter, Meng Lin

The solar thermochemical cycle based on ceria is a promising route for renewable fuel production. The solar-to-fuel efficiency of a thermochemical reactor is highly dependent on the oxygen removal during the reduction step. Conventional nitrogen sweeping ( ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Engineering of PEM-PEC photocathodes for solar-driven hydrogen production

Marina Caroline Michèle Caretti

Earth has always been in perpetual evolution, but today we must face its rapid change due to human activity. The intensification of industrial activities and transportation to support our modern lifestyles are the main causes of climate change and the adve ...

EPFL2022