A photoelectrochemical flow cell design for the efficient CO2 conversion to fuels

[Display omitted] A solar driven photoelectrochemical flow cell consisting of TiO2 nanorods and an electrodeposited Sn on gas diffusion electrode (GDE) has been studied for the reduction of CO2 (CO2R) and O2 evolution reaction (OER) under visible light irradiation. Two strategies were proposed to en...

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Published inElectrochimica acta Vol. 240; pp. 225 - 230
Main Authors Irtem, Erdem, Hernández-Alonso, María D., Parra, Andrés, Fàbrega, Cristian, Penelas-Pérez, Germán, Morante, Joan R., Andreu, Teresa
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 20.06.2017
Subjects
CO2 electrochemical reduction Sn-GDE
formate
photoelectrochemical cell
solar fuels
TiO2 photoanode
photoelectrochemical cell
formate
CO2 electrochemical reduction Sn-GDE
solar fuels
TiO2 photoanode
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Summary:[Display omitted] A solar driven photoelectrochemical flow cell consisting of TiO2 nanorods and an electrodeposited Sn on gas diffusion electrode (GDE) has been studied for the reduction of CO2 (CO2R) and O2 evolution reaction (OER) under visible light irradiation. Two strategies were proposed to enhance the overall product efficiency which are (i) adjustment of cathode dimensions and (ii) concentration of solar light on the photoanode. With the TiO2 photoanode, at an applied bias potential of 1.2V, faradaic efficiencies of 40–65% for HCOO− production were obtained on the Sn cathode, reaching energy efficiencies up to 70%. The presented results prove that optimized system efficiency could be obtained with a stable photoanode providing a large photovoltage for OER and a GDE cathode with improved CO2 mass transfer which paves the way towards efficient synthesis of industrial solar fuels.
ISSN:0013-4686
1873-3859
DOI:10.1016/j.electacta.2017.04.072