Unbiased solar H2 production with current density up to 23 mA cm-2 by Swiss-cheese black Si coupled with wastewater bioanode
Abstract
Unbiased photoelectrochemical hydrogen production with high efficiency and durability is highly desired for solar energy storage. Here, we report a microbial photoelectrochemical (MPEC) system that demonstrated superior performance when equipped with bioanodes and black silicon photocathode with a unique “Swiss-cheese” interface. The MPEC utilizes the chemical energy embedded in wastewater organics to boost solar H2 production, which overcomes barriers on anode H2O oxidation. Without any bias, the MPEC generates a record photocurrent (up to 23 mA cm-2) and retains prolonged stability for over 90 hours with high Faradaic efficiency (96–99%). The calculated turnover number for MoSx catalyst during a 90 h period is 495 471 with an average frequency of 1.53 s-1. The system replaced pure water on the anode with actual wastewater and achieved waste organic removal up to 16 kg COD m-2 photocathode per day. Cost credits from concurrent wastewater treatment and low-cost design make photoelectrochemical H2 production practical for the first time.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[3];
[4];
[4];
[5];
[2];
[1]
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- San Diego State Univ., CA (United States)
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1502793
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-73372
Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692; EESNBY
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Energy & Environmental Science
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 08 HYDROGEN; 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; hydrogen production; bioanodes; photoelectrochemistry; black silicon
Citation Formats
Lu, Lu, Vakki, Waltteri, Aguiar, Jeffery A., Xiao, Chuanxiao, Hurst, Katherine, Fairchild, Michael, Chen, Xi, Yang, Fan, Gu, Jing, and Ren, Zhiyong Jason. Unbiased solar H2 production with current density up to 23 mA cm-2 by Swiss-cheese black Si coupled with wastewater bioanode. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1039/C8EE03673J.
Lu, Lu, Vakki, Waltteri, Aguiar, Jeffery A., Xiao, Chuanxiao, Hurst, Katherine, Fairchild, Michael, Chen, Xi, Yang, Fan, Gu, Jing, & Ren, Zhiyong Jason. Unbiased solar H2 production with current density up to 23 mA cm-2 by Swiss-cheese black Si coupled with wastewater bioanode. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE03673J
Lu, Lu, Vakki, Waltteri, Aguiar, Jeffery A., Xiao, Chuanxiao, Hurst, Katherine, Fairchild, Michael, Chen, Xi, Yang, Fan, Gu, Jing, and Ren, Zhiyong Jason. Tue .
"Unbiased solar H2 production with current density up to 23 mA cm-2 by Swiss-cheese black Si coupled with wastewater bioanode". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE03673J. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1502793.
@article{osti_1502793,
title = {Unbiased solar H2 production with current density up to 23 mA cm-2 by Swiss-cheese black Si coupled with wastewater bioanode},
author = {Lu, Lu and Vakki, Waltteri and Aguiar, Jeffery A. and Xiao, Chuanxiao and Hurst, Katherine and Fairchild, Michael and Chen, Xi and Yang, Fan and Gu, Jing and Ren, Zhiyong Jason},
abstractNote = {Unbiased photoelectrochemical hydrogen production with high efficiency and durability is highly desired for solar energy storage. Here, we report a microbial photoelectrochemical (MPEC) system that demonstrated superior performance when equipped with bioanodes and black silicon photocathode with a unique “Swiss-cheese” interface. The MPEC utilizes the chemical energy embedded in wastewater organics to boost solar H2 production, which overcomes barriers on anode H2O oxidation. Without any bias, the MPEC generates a record photocurrent (up to 23 mA cm-2) and retains prolonged stability for over 90 hours with high Faradaic efficiency (96–99%). The calculated turnover number for MoSx catalyst during a 90 h period is 495 471 with an average frequency of 1.53 s-1. The system replaced pure water on the anode with actual wastewater and achieved waste organic removal up to 16 kg COD m-2 photocathode per day. Cost credits from concurrent wastewater treatment and low-cost design make photoelectrochemical H2 production practical for the first time.},
doi = {10.1039/C8EE03673J},
journal = {Energy & Environmental Science},
number = 3,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}
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Comment on “Unbiased solar H 2 production with current density up to 23 mA cm −2 by Swiss-cheese black Si coupled with wastewater bioanode” by L. Lu, W. Vakki, J. A. Aguiar, C. Xiao, K. Hurst, M. Fairchild, X. Chen, F. Yang, J. Gu and Z. J. Ren, Energy Environ. Sci. , 2019, 12 , 1088
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