(Invited) (Photo)Electrochemical Cells for Hydrogen Production and Carbon Dioxide Utilization

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) and electrochemical cells can produce hydrogen from water and/or can produce useful chemicals from carbon dioxide, and, thus, are the key technologies for construction of carbon neutral society.Direct water splitting using photoelectrochemical cell is one of the promising means to produce hydrogen utilizing solar energy. The most important issue for photoelectrode the central of photoelectrochemical cell is narrow bandgap combined with large reaction driving force. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) which is employed as an absorber material in photovoltaic devices is one of the promising photocathode materials because of its long absorption edge of >1000 nm. [1] However, its driving force for water splitting is limited because of relatively shallow valence band maximum (VBM). The solid solution between ZnSe and CIGS (ZnSe-CIGS) is one of the promising candidates of photocathode material for water splitting because of its long absorption edge, ~900 nm, and large driving force, ~1.0 V. [2] In the present study, we investigated introduction of tellurium during ZnSe-CIGS thin films, and found the tellurium introduction increase grain size of ZnSe-CIGS film. The sequential deposition of Ga-rich layer and In-rich layer resulted in formation of composition gradient which facilitate charge separation thorough conduction band minimum (CBM) gradient. The ZnSe-CIGS base photocathode prepared with employing tellurium introduction and composition gradient showed significantly increased incident photon-to-current conversion efficiencies (IPCEs), close to unity. [3]The electrochemical cell with gas diffusion electrode (GDE) for carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) can produce useful chemicals efficiently. Copper species are the catalysts with capable of producing C2 products such as C2H5OH and C2H4. In the present study, Cu2O was examined as an electrocatalyst for CO2RR. A GDE composed of carbon paper coated with Cu2O by electroplating method showed C2H4 production with faradaic efficiency (FE) of >50% and C2H5OH production with FE of >20% under the optimized conditions for >10 hours.References H. Kumagai, T. Minegishi, N. Sato, T. Yamada, J. Kubota, K. Domen, J. Mater. Chem. A, 3, 8300 (2015). H. Kaneko, T. Minegishi, M. Nakabayashi, N. Shibata, K. Domen, Angew.Chem. Int. Ed. 55,15329 (2016). T. Minegishi, S. Yamaguchi, M. Sugiyama, Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 123905 (2021).