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Photochemical Systems for Solar-to-Fuel Production

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Abstract

The photochemical system, which utilizes only solar energy and H2O/CO2 to produce hydrogen/carbon-based fuels, is considered a promising approach to reduce CO2 emissions and achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. To date, numerous photochemical systems have been developed to obtain a viable solar-to-fuel production system with sufficient energy efficiency. However, more effort is still needed to meet the requirements of industrial implementation. In this review, we systematically discuss a typical photochemical system for solar-to-fuel production, from classical theories and fundamental mechanisms to raw material selection, reaction condition optimization, and unit device/system advancement, from the viewpoint of ordered energy conversion. State-of-the-art photochemical systems, including photocatalytic, photovoltaic-electrochemical, photoelectrochemical, solar thermochemical, and other emerging systems, are summarized. We highlight the existing bottlenecks and discuss the developing trend of this technology. Finally, optimization strategies and new opportunities are proposed to enhance photochemical systems with higher energy efficiency.

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Fig. 1
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Fig. 4

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [73]. Copyright © 2011 American Association for the Advancement of Science. b Production of hydrogen and oxygen from CoO nanoparticles. The inset: the photograph of the photocatalyst. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [74]. Copyright © 2013 Springer Nature. c The migration of free charges and photocatalytic H2 production from an aqueous solution over nanotwin Cd0.5Zn0.5S-PH crystals. Reproduced by permission from Ref. [9]. Copyright © 2011 The Royal Society of Chemistry. d An energy diagram depicting the photosynthetic CO2R coupled with water oxidation on a CotpyP-loaded La,Rh:SrTiO3 |Au|RuO2-Mo:BiVO4 photocatalyst sheet. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [81]. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature

Fig. 5

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [113]. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier. b Diagrammatic sketch of CPC with a round absorber. The arrangement and overview of the whole CPC-based system for photocatalytic hydrogen generation. Reproduced from Ref. [114]. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier

Fig. 6

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [160]. Copyright © 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science. b HER volcano plot of metals. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [161]. Copyright © 2017 Springer Nature

Fig. 7

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [15]. Copyright © 2016 Springer Nature. c Schematic diagram of the four-terminal GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells with CuO/SnO2 as the cathode and anode for CO2R. d The stability of the GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction solar cell-based PV–EC system to CO. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [163]. Copyright © 2017 Springer Nature. e Schematic diagram of CO2R on the Au25-immobilized GDE (Au25/GDE) in a flow cell. Au25 clusters were directly anchored on the microporous layer (MPL) of a GDE. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [10]. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society. f STF of a nanomultilayer porous Ag electrode combined with GaInP/GaInAs/Ge, Si, and perovskite solar cells. Reproduced with permission from Ref.[165]. Copyright © 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Fig. 8

Reproduced with permission from Ref.[167]. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [190]. Copyright 2017 © Springer Nature. c Schematic setup for a Mode T PEC system that consists of a backside-illuminated BiVO4 photoanode and a frontside-illuminated c-Si photocathode. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [191]. Copyright 2018 © Springer Nature. d Structure of the GaInP/GaInAs tandem photocathode for PEC water splitting. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [193]. Copyright © 2017 Springer Nature. e J–V curve of the Rh/TiO2/oxide/AlInP-GaInP/GaInAs/GaAs photocathode in acidic (pH 0) and neutral (pH 7) electrolytes and in a neutral electrolyte. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [21]. Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society. f A PEC device integrated a water electrolyzer and a solar cell monolithically to promote cost-efficient solar hydrogen production. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [197]. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier. g Scheme of the tandem perovskite-BiVO4 PEC cell device for unassisted syngas production. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [203]. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature. h A beam-splitter PEC system integrated with a Co-Pi/BiVO4/WO3 photoanode and the GaAs/InGaAsP PV cell. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [200]. Copyright © 2016 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Fig. 11

Reproduced from Ref. [204] with permission. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier. b J–V curves of the scaled-up WO3 photoanodes with and without Ag grids on FTO substrates. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [201]. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier. c Optical image of the 1.6 m2 BiVO4-based PEC device from the EU Project Artiphyction

Fig. 12

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [27]. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier. b Scheme of the solar reactor configuration. The solar reactor comprises a cavity receiver containing a capped tubular membrane made of CeO2 enclosed by a coaxial alumina tube. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [54]. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier. Partial molar enthalpy c and entropy d as a function of the nonstoichiometry for various investigated materials. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [26]. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. e Hydrogen production evolution in the water-decomposition step during consecutive thermochemical cycles with F-CSZ. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [231]. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier. f nCO by PSM perovskites from cycle 2 to cycle 10. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [232]. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier

Fig. 13

Reproduced with permission from Ref. [237]. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier. c A solar-driven thermal-electric device coupled tandem PEC cell for water splitting. Reproduced with permission from Ref.[238]. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier. d Pyroelectric electrochemical water splitting. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [247]. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier. e Configuration and mechanism of the pyro-photoelectric PEC system for water splitting and f current density versus applied voltage (I–V) curves under different conditions. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [248]. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier. g Schematic of the architecture with the photo-Dember effect and h the photo-Dember effect on metals. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [249]. Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society. i The configuration of the CM/TiO2−x/CP electrode-electrolyzer system with a photothermal effect. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [250]. Copyright © 2019 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Basic Science Center Program for Ordered Energy Conversion of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51888103). We thank Yuting Yin, Mengmeng Song, Wenhao Jing, Chen Liao, Xue Ding, Hongwei Zhou, Guiwei He, Dan Lei, and Youhong Guo for helpful discussions about this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Research Center for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Ya Liu, Feng Wang, Zihao Jiao, Shengjie Bai, Haoran Qiu & Liejin Guo

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  1. Ya Liu
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  2. Feng Wang
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  3. Zihao Jiao
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  4. Shengjie Bai
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Correspondence to Liejin Guo.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Y. Liu, F. Wang, and Z. Jiao contributed equally to this work.

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Liu, Y., Wang, F., Jiao, Z. et al. Photochemical Systems for Solar-to-Fuel Production. Electrochem. Energy Rev. 5, 5 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41918-022-00132-y

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