H2020Индивидуална стипендия2015–2017

SolHyPro · Water splitting by solar energy: From lab-scale to prototype devices

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2015-06-01 → 2017-05-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 170 509 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Хематитът се изследва като материал за разделяне на водата на водород и кислород чрез слънчева енергия. Това помага за създаването на ефективни системи за съхранение на енергия, които да компенсират промените в времето и денонощните цикли.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Water splitting by solar energy: From lab-scale to prototype devices

Sunlight is the most abundant sustainable source of energy and there is no doubt that it will play a major role in future energy production. One of the main challenges for renewable energy technologies is its intermitted nature. Accommodating the different cycles (e.g. day-night, clear-stormy weather) and seasonal variations demands intermediate energy storage on a massive scale. An attractive solution to this storage problem is to produce hydrogen from water using sunlight as a power source. Hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) is a promising photoanode material for using solar energy by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. It has a favourable bandgap energy (2.1 eV), good catalytic activity for water oxidation, low cost, is chemically stable in alkaline solutions and environmentally friendly. However, its water splitting efficiency is limited by fast electron-hole recombination and it produces a below threshold photovoltage. The key to increasing the lifetime of photo-generated charge carriers is supressing defects such as grain boundaries or surface defects. The hematite films as well as the adjacent layers were optimized in terms of their microstructure, chemical composition and defect chemistry in order to achieve the goal of an enhanced photocurrent at the reversible water oxidation potential (1.23 VRHE). This was addressed in the first two objectives. In the third objective, the idea was to couple photoelectrolytic cell to a photovoltaic cell. This was achieved by a wavelength-selective dielectric mirror, so-called a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). Depending on the required deposition conditions for the best-performing photoanode, the fabrication sequence needs to be adjusted, which was done in the fourth objective. Finally, a scaled-up device was planned to be fabricated with the optimized thin film structure in the fifth objective. The last objective was only partially fulfilled as explained below.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Hematite is a promising photoanode material for harvesting solar energy by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. It has a favorable bandgap energy (2.1 eV), good catalytic activity for water oxidation, low cost, is chemically stable in alkaline solutions and environmentally friendly. However, its water splitting efficiency is limited by electron-hole recombination length and it produces a below threshold photovoltage. The key to increasing the recombination length is supressing defects such as grain boundaries or surface roughness of the photoanode. The second issue is successfully resolved by coupling the photoelectrolytic cell to a photovoltaic cell, a so-called tandem cell with theoretically higher efficiency owing to optimal use of the solar spectrum. Both of these drawbacks are accounted for in this project.The aim of this project is to optimize the water photoelectrolysis performance of the photoelectrolysis-photovoltaic tandem-cell device by tailoring the microstructure of the thin film hematite photoanods, and up scaling from the laboratory scale to a prototype device. Fabrication of an efficient water-splitting cell is challenging as it consists of several thin film layers. Each of these layers impacts on the performance of the water-splitting tandem-cell.Up scaling from the lab scale to the prototype scale (10x10cm2) will be carried out in cooperation with PVComB in Germany. This poses entirely different challenges, creating the need for an adapted fabrication sequence and deposition conditions that ensure the adhesion of the ceramic and metal thin film layers. At the end of this project, I personally will have gained expertise in advanced microstructural analysis technique and also in the leadership role, which will enable me to take the next step in my carrier. And, we will have built a fully functional, fabrication-ready device for hydrogen production directly from solar energy. A great leap forward into a society based on renewable resources.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · HaifaКоординаторИзраел