Abstract
Nowadays, solar energy is the most environmentally friendly energy source to drive many chemical reactions and physical processes. However, the corresponding fabrication procedures for obtaining excellent energy-storage devices are relatively complicated and expensive. In this work, we report an innovative strategy on plasmon-activated water (PAW) serving as energy-storage medium from solar energy. The lifetime of the created energetic PAW solution from hot electron transfer (HET) on Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) illuminated with sunshine can last for 2 days, making the energy-storage system is practically available. Encouragingly, the energy-conversion efficiency from the solar energy in the PAW solution is ca. 6.7%. Compared to conventional deionized (DI) water solution, the prepared metastable PAW solution exhibited distinctly higher chemical potential at room temperature. It demonstrates abilities in faster evaporation and enhancing chemical reactions, including hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Our proposed strategy on the simple and cheap energy-storage system based on prepared PAW utilizing solar energy is the first time shown in the literature.
Highlights
Nowadays, solar energy is the most environmentally friendly energy source to drive many chemical reactions and physical processes
Most of the energy converted from solar energy is heat, and the dynamic equilibrium of hydrogen bonds (HBs) is on the level of picoseconds in water, making liquid water unavailable as an energy-storage resource when it is cooled to room temperature
Hot electrons may seize the moment to rapidly occupy breaking HBs and prevent them from reforming. This potential inspired us to utilize hot electron transfer (HET) at excited Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) to create a metastable energetic plasmon-activated water (PAW) solution with intrinsically reduced HBs, which can serve as a new alternative energy-storage resource with a higher chemical potential from solar energy
Summary
Solar energy is the most environmentally friendly energy source to drive many chemical reactions and physical processes. This potential inspired us to utilize HET at excited AuNPs to create a metastable energetic PAW solution with intrinsically reduced HBs, which can serve as a new alternative energy-storage resource with a higher chemical potential from solar energy.
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