Unassisted photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction by employing III–V photoelectrode with 15% solar‐to‐fuel efficiency.

Peramaiah, Karthik; Varadhan, Purushothaman; Ramalingam, Vinoth; Khan, Bilawal; Das, Pradip Kumar; Huang, Hao; Fu, Hui‐Chun; Yang, Xiulin; Tung, Vincent; Huang, Kuo‐Wei; He, Jr‐Hau

Abstract

Solar-driven carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) provides an opportunity to produce value-added chemical feedstocks and fuels. However, achieving efficient and stable photoelectrochemical (PEC) CO2RR into selective products is challenging owing to the difficulties associated with the optical and the electrical configuration of PEC devices and electrocatalyst properties. Herein, we construct an efficient, concentrated sunlight-driven CO2RR setup consisting of InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction cell as a photoanode and oxide-derived Au (Ox-Au) as a cathode to perform the unassisted PEC CO2RR. Under one-sun illumination, a maximum operating current density of 11.5 mA cm–2 with an impressive Faradaic efficiency (FE) of ~98% is achieved for carbon monoxide (CO) production, leading to a solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency of ~15%. Under concentrated intensity of 10 sun, the photoanode records a maximum current density of ~124 mA cm–2 and maintains ~60% of FE for CO production. The results demonstrate crucial advancements in using III–V based photoanodes for concentrated PEC CO2RR.

Citation

PERAMAIAH, K., VARADHAN, P., RAMALINGAM, V., KHAN, B., DAS, P.K., HUANG, H., FU, H.-C., YANG, X., TUNG, V., HUANG, K.-W. and HE, J.-H. 2025. Unassisted photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction by employing III–V photoelectrode with 15% solar-to-fuel efficiency. Carbon energy [online], Early View. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/cey2.669

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 17, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jan 6, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 7, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2025
• Journal: Carbon energy
• Electronic ISSN: 2637-9368
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cey2.669
• Keywords: 3J photoanode; CO2 reduction; High STF; Unassisted PEC
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2656126
• Additional Information: This article has been published with separate supporting information. This supporting information has been incorporated into a single file on this repository and can be found at the end of the file associated with this output.