HEИндивидуална стипендия2022–2024

CHALCON · Chalcogenide-Silicon tandem PEC for CO2 reduction

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

Период: 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 191 760 €
Участници: 2
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Фотоелектрохимичните клетки от силиций и халкогениди се изследват за превръщане на въглеродния диоксид в полезни химикали и горива чрез слънчева светлина. Това помага за намаляване на нивата на CO2 в атмосферата и насърчава устойчивия растеж.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

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

Резултати накратко

Chalcogenide-Silicon tandem PEC for CO2 reduction

Fossil fuels dependent growth has led to an unprecedented rise in the atmospheric CO2 levels. This has triggered climate change which emerged as one of the biggest global challenges of our time. Artificial photosynthetic systems, such as photoelectrochemical cells (PEC) offer affordable solution to reduce CO2 by converting it to valuable products directly using only sunlight as energy input. This strategy can substantially reduce CO2 and generate greener fuels and chemicals to propel sustainable growth. For practical realization of such PEC systems, it is necessary to integrate inexpensive semiconducting materials that not only fully utilize the solar energy spectrum but also drive CO2 reduction (CO2R) efficiently for many hours. Various semiconducting materials such as oxides, nitrides, phosphides have been studied so far. However, most of them do not satisfy the essential criteria and often require expensive materials. Cumulative factors including insufficient light absorption, unsuitable energy band alignment, poor charge separation and transport, and slow catalytic conversion process at the surface are predominant limitations to the current PEC systems. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there are very few semiconductors that are even stable in aqueous media used for CO2R. The project started with clear questions to address – Is it possible to design a stable semiconductor addressing the above challenges and drive photoelectrochemical CO2R? Is it possible to fabricate a single integrated tandem device comprising of inexpensive materials and drive PEC reaction in an standalone configuration?

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

Цел на проекта

Solar driven photoelectrohemical reduction of CO2 (CO2R) to valuable chemicals and fuels in artificial photosynthesis is of high importance for sustainable future and societal growth. Among current PEC systems, electrolysis from PV cells using III-V semiconductors is promising but high material cost is a major limitation. Integrated PV-PEC systems are desirable; however, they suffer from low performance due to insufficient solar spectrum utilization, carrier generation and transport losses, and poor catalysis. An efficient and low-cost integrated system of a photocathode (PC) and photoanode (PA) is yet to be realized for simultaneous CO2R and oxidation of alcohol or water, respectively. In this project, we propose a tandem architecture, including monolithic and wired connected design, comprising of (1.8 – 2.0 eV) bandgap Cu(In,Ga)S2 based top cell PC and silicon (1.1 eV) PA as bottom cell. The photovoltage of > 1.8 eV is targeted from CIGS-Si tandem system. This will be accomplished by synthesizing high-quality CIGS optimized for interface recombination coupled with nanostructured and dual side doped Si. The key aspect of the project is to couple the CO2R with the glycerol oxidation reaction which lowers the voltage requirement and makes it feasible for bias-free operation of CO2R and glycerol oxidation, thus producing valuable products like CO and formic acid at PC and PA respectively. PC and PA will be individually optimized for high voltage, carrier selectivity, light management, high surface area catalysis and protected surfaces to avoid degradation. The design of the project allows to investigate device with electrical bias, similar to “3-terminal” tandem PV device. Separate PC and PA reaction chamber will make product separation easier with accurate estimation of the fuel production efficiency. Applied bias, light intensity, light wavelength and catalyst coating layer will be varied and its relation to device performance and degradation will be established.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO-ELECTRONICA CENTRUM · LeuvenКоординаторБелгия
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA · OaklandСъединени щати