Study on Hydrogen Production by Photoelectric Decomposition of Water -Lithium - Ion Battery Equipment
By simulating the important functions of key components in Optical System II, the research team used BiVO4 semiconductor as light harvesting material and NiFeLDH, which can inhibit BiVO4 photoetching, as hole storage layer (Angel.Chem. Int.Ed., 2014, 537295; EnergyEnvironment. Sci., 2016, 91327). At the same time, the molecular Co cubane is used as the water oxidation catalyst to simulate the Mn4CaO5 oxygen release center in natural photosynthesis. Researchers found that partially oxidized graphene (pGO) can be used as a charge transfer medium between light harvesting materials and water oxidation catalysts, showing a function similar to that of tyrosine (Tyr) in natural light system II. The results show that the bionic system has high efficiency and stability in the photoelectric catalytic decomposition of water, and the initial potential of water oxidation reaction is 0.17V, close to the theoretical value of thermodynamics, which is the lowest value reported in the literature at present. In addition, the photocurrent of the system under 1.23V (VS.RHE) bias voltage is up to 4.45mA · cm-2, and the solar to hydrogen energy conversion (STH) is more than 2.0%. This work is a new progress made in the application of photocatalytic water decomposition after the research group applied the semiconductor and molecular catalyst coupling system to the relevant research of photocatalysis (J.Catalog., 2016338168; J.Am. Chem. Soc., 201613810726).
The above work has been supported by the 973 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Pilot Science and Technology Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Energy Materials Chemistry Collaborative Innovation Center (iChEM) of the Ministry of Education.