{"id":9365,"date":"2014-10-19T18:48:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T01:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=9365"},"modified":"2014-12-20T10:29:40","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T17:29:40","slug":"direct-conversion-sunlight-hydrogen-cheaply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/direct-conversion-sunlight-hydrogen-cheaply\/","title":{"rendered":"Direct Conversion of Sunlight to Hydrogen \u2013 Cheaply"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">We\u2019ve witnessed several attempts to produce an \u201cartificial leaf,\u201d a device emulating the photosynthesis of plants, but providing hydrogen and oxygen that could power fuel cells in electric vehicles instead of plant sugars to make trees and flowers grow.\u00a0 One of the biggest problems so far has been the rare and costly materials necessary to generate hydrogen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00c8cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9ral de Lausanne (EPFL) scientists have come up with a low-cost alternative, using abundant materials called perovskites and budget electrodes to produce hydrogen from water with a 12.3 percent conversion efficiency \u2013 a record for fairly common materials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A 12.3% efficient solar to hydrogen conversion with low-cost, earth-abundant materials\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hkGAqk-TXw8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Perovskites are a <a title=\"Calcium\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ask.com\/wiki\/Calcium?qsrc=3044\">calcium<\/a>\u00a0<a title=\"Titanium\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ask.com\/wiki\/Titanium?qsrc=3044\">titanium<\/a>\u00a0<a title=\"Oxide mineral\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ask.com\/wiki\/Oxide_mineral?qsrc=3044\">oxide mineral<\/a> that come in a variety of colors and can be bog-common or extremely rare, approaching rare earth mineral status.\u00a0 The CaTiO3 used by <a href=\"http:\/\/lpi.epfl.ch\/graetzel\">Michael Gr\u00e4tzel<\/a> is of the common variety, but that doesn\u2019t seem to detract from its performance as a hydrogen-production agent.<\/p>\n<p>That, and the inexpensive materials used in the device\u2019s electrodes cause Jingshan Luo, a post-graduate student on the project, to note,\u201d &#8220;Both the perovskite used in the cells and the nickel and iron catalysts making up the electrodes require resources that are abundant on Earth and that are also cheap, However, our electrodes work just as well as the expensive platinum-based models customarily used.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The work, done at the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at EPFL, is led by Gr\u00e4tzel, who directs the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at the Polytechnique.\u00a0 According to his university biography, \u201cHe pioneered the use of mesoscopic materials in energy conversion systems, in particular photovoltaic cells, lithium ion batteries and photo-electrochemical devices for the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen by sunlight. He discovered a new type of solar cell based on dye sensitized nanocrystalline oxide films. Mass production has started in October 2009. Author of over 1,000 publications, two books and inventor of more than 50 patents, his work has been cited over 134,000 times (h-index 167) making him one of the 10 most highly cited chemists in the world.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s also won awards that take up a very long paragraph in his bio.<\/p>\n<p>Pulling on past experience, Gr\u00e4tzel and his team have created a solar converter with \u201cspectacular\u201d performance.\u00a0 It could generate electricity directly, but that would limit its energy use to simultaneous delivery and keep that energy from being used at night.\u00a0 Gr\u00e4tzel and his researchers chose to store the hydrogen generated by their device.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9366\" style=\"width: 538px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/efpl-perovskite-solar-cell.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9366\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9366\" alt=\"Profusion of bubbles show perovskites actively making hydrogen and oxygen in water exposed to sunlight.  Photo: EPFL\" src=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/efpl-perovskite-solar-cell-528x352.jpg\" width=\"528\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/efpl-perovskite-solar-cell-528x352.jpg 528w, http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/efpl-perovskite-solar-cell-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/efpl-perovskite-solar-cell.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-9366\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Profusion of bubbles show perovskites actively making hydrogen and oxygen in water exposed to sunlight. Photo: EPFL<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One indicator of the converter\u2019s performance is the fact that it uses only two cells to generate hydrogen.\u00a0 Jingshan Luo explains, &#8220;A voltage of 1.7 V or more is required for water electrolysis to occur and to obtain exploitable gases. \u00a0This is the first time we have been able to get hydrogen through electrolysis with only two cells!&#8221; \u00a0Usually, three or more 0.7 V silicon cells are needed, whereas just two 1.0 V perovskite cells are enough, showing a big bump in efficiency for the more common material.<\/p>\n<p>Gr\u00e4tzel explains, &#8220;Once you have hydrogen, you store it in a bottle and you can do with it whatever you want to, whenever you want it,&#8221; \u00a0burning it in a boiler or engine, or using it in a fuel cell to generate electricity when desired.\u00a0 Either way, the combustion releases only water vapor.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Gr\u00e4tzel and his research team of Jingshan Luo, Jeong-Hyeok Im, Matthew T. Mayer, Marcel Schreier, Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Nam-Gyu Park, S. David Tilley, and Hong Jin Fan, published their paper, \u201cWater photolysis at 12.3% efficiency via perovskite photovoltaics and Earth-abundant catalysts,\u201d in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/345\/6204\/1593\">September 26 issue of the journal, <em>Science<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">The profusion of tiny bubbles escaping from the electrodes as soon as the solar cells are exposed to light say it better than words ever could: the combination of sun and water paves a promising and effervescent way for developing the energy of the future. \u00a0Since most such discoveries have applications for solar cells, hydrogen generation, and possibly batteries, we anxiously await the team&#8217;s even more efficient perovskite breakthrough.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"facebook_like\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fcafe.foundation%2Fblog%2Fdirect-conversion-sunlight-hydrogen-cheaply%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=500&amp;action=like&amp;font=segoe+ui&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:500px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve witnessed several attempts to produce an \u201cartificial leaf,\u201d a device emulating the photosynthesis of plants, but providing hydrogen and oxygen that could power fuel cells in electric vehicles instead of plant sugars to make trees and flowers grow.\u00a0 One of the biggest problems so far has been the rare and costly materials necessary to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[5566,5569,5568,5564,3165,5559,5558,5560,4311,5565,5561,5562,5567,5563,223],"class_list":{"0":"post-9365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-electric_powerplants","7":"category-sustainable_ga","8":"tag-calcium-titanium-oxide-mineral","9":"tag-catio3","10":"tag-ecole-polytechnique-federal-de-lausanne-epfl","11":"tag-hong-jin-fan","12":"tag-hydrogen-generation","13":"tag-jeong-hyeok-im","14":"tag-jingshan-luo","15":"tag-marcel-schreier","16":"tag-matthew-t-mayer","17":"tag-michael-gratzel","18":"tag-mohammad-khaja-nazeeruddin","19":"tag-nam-gyu-park","20":"tag-perovskites","21":"tag-s-david-tilley","22":"tag-solar-power"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - 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