Photoactivated Fuel Cells (PhotoFuelCells). An alternative source of renewable energy with environmental benefits

Stavroula Sfaelou; Panagiotis Lianos; Stavroula Sfaelou; Panagiotis Lianos

doi:10.3934/matersci.2016.1.270

AIMS Materials Science

2016, Volume 3, Issue 1: 270-288. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.1.270

Previous Article Next Article

Mini review Topical Sections

Photoactivated Fuel Cells (PhotoFuelCells). An alternative source of renewable energy with environmental benefits

Stavroula Sfaelou ,
Panagiotis Lianos ^,

Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece

Received: 15 January 2016 Accepted: 28 February 2016 Published: 02 March 2016

This work is a short review of Photoactivated Fuel Cells, that is, photoelectrochemical cells which consume an organic or inorganic fuel to produce renewable electricity or hydrogen. The work presents the basic features of photoactivated fuel cells, their modes of operation, the materials, which are frequently used for their construction and some ideas of cell design both for electricity and solar hydrogen production. Water splitting is treated as a special case of photoactivated fuel cell operation.
- Photoactivated Fuel Cells,
- photocatalytic fuel cells,
- PhotoFuelCells,
- solar cells,
- hydrogen production
Citation: Stavroula Sfaelou, Panagiotis Lianos. Photoactivated Fuel Cells (PhotoFuelCells). An alternative source of renewable energy with environmental benefits[J]. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(1): 270-288. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.1.270

Related Papers:

Abstract

This work is a short review of Photoactivated Fuel Cells, that is, photoelectrochemical cells which consume an organic or inorganic fuel to produce renewable electricity or hydrogen. The work presents the basic features of photoactivated fuel cells, their modes of operation, the materials, which are frequently used for their construction and some ideas of cell design both for electricity and solar hydrogen production. Water splitting is treated as a special case of photoactivated fuel cell operation.

References

[1]	Becquerel E (1839) Mémoire sur les effets électriques produits sous l'influence des rayons solaires. Comptes Rendus 9: 561–567.
[2]	Fujishima A, Honda K (1972) Electrochemical Photolysis of Water at a Semiconductor Electrode. Nature 238: 37–38. doi: 10.1038/238037a0
[3]	Kaneko M, Nemoto J, Ueno H, et al. (2006) Photoelectrochemical Reaction of Biomass and Bio-Related Compounds With Nanoporous TiO₂ Film Photoanode and O₂-Reducing Cathode. Electrochem Commun 8: 336–340. doi: 10.1016/j.elecom.2005.12.004
[4]	Lianos P (2011) Production of Electricity and Hydrogen by Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Wastes in a Photoelectrochemical Cell: The Concept of the Photofuelcell: A Review of a Re-Emerging Research Field. J Hazard Mater 185: 575–590. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2010.10.083
[5]	Michal R, Sfaelou S, Lianos P (2014) Photocatalysis for Renewable Energy Production using PhotoFuelCells. Molecules 19: 19732–19750. doi: 10.3390/molecules191219732
[6]	Shu D, Wu J, Gong Y, et al. (2014) BiOI-based photoactivated fuel cell using refractory organic compounds as substrates to generate electricity. Catal Today 224: 13–20. doi: 10.1016/j.cattod.2013.12.017
[7]	Yang C, He Y, Li K, et al. (2015) Degrading organic pollutants and generating electricity in a dual-chamber rotating-disk photocatalytic fuel cell (RPFC) with a TiO₂ nanotube array anode. Res Chem Intermed 41: 5365–5377. doi: 10.1007/s11164-014-1637-2
[8]	Karanasios N, Georgieva J, Valova E, et al. (2015) Photoelectrocatalytic Oxidation of Organics Under Visible Light Illumination: A Short Review. Curr Org Chem 19: 512–520. doi: 10.2174/1385272819666150115000247
[9]	Lu S-J, Ji S-B, Liu J-C, et al. (2015) Photoelectrocatalytic oxidation of glucose at a ruthenium complex modified titanium dioxide electrode promoted by uric acid and ascorbic acid for photoelectrochemical fuel cells. J Power Sources 273: 142–148. doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2014.09.060
[10]	Li K, Zhang H, Tang T, et al. (2014) Optimization and application of TiO₂/Ti-Pt photo fuel cell (PFC) to effectively generate electricity and degrade organic pollutants simultaneously. Water Res 62: 1–10. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.05.044
[11]	Sfaelou S, Sygellou L, Dracopoulos V, et al. (2014) Effect of the nature of cadmium salts on the effectiveness of CdS SILAR deposition and its consequences on the performance of sensitized solar cells. J Phys Chem C 118: 22873–22880. doi: 10.1021/jp505787z
[12]	Antoniadou M, Lianos P (2010) Production of electricity by photoelectrochemical oxidation of ethanol in a PhotoFuelCell. Appl Catal B 99: 307–313.
[13]	Dou B, Song Y, Wang C, et al. (2014) Hydrogen production from catalytic steam reforming of biodiesel byproduct glycerol: Issues and challenges. Renew Sust Energ Rev 30: 950–960. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2013.11.029
[14]	Sfaelou S, Zhuang X, Feng X, et al. (2015) Sulfur-doped Porous Carbon Nanosheets as High Performance Electrocatalysts in PhotoFuelCells. RSC Adv 5: 27953–27963. doi: 10.1039/C5RA02027A
[15]	Kumagai H, Minegishi T, Sato N, et al. (2015) Efficient solar hydrogen production from neutral electrolytes using surface-modified Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ photocathodes. J Mater Chem A 3: 8300–8307. doi: 10.1039/C5TA01058F
[16]	Lin C-Y, Mersch D, Jefferson DA, et al. (2014) Cobalt sulphide microtube array as cathode in photoelectrochemical water splitting with photoanodes. Chem Sci 5: 4906–4913. doi: 10.1039/C4SC01811G
[17]	Kibsgaard J, Jaramillo TF (2014) Molybdenum Phosphosulfide: An active, acid-stable, earth-abuntant catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Angew Chem Int Ed 53: 14433–14437. doi: 10.1002/anie.201408222
[18]	Antoniadou M, Sfaelou S, Dracopoulos V, et al. (2014) Platinum-free photoelectrochemical water splitting. Catal Commun 43: 72–74. doi: 10.1016/j.catcom.2013.09.010
[19]	Buhler N, Meier K, Reber J-F (1984) Photochemical Hydrogen Production with Cadmium Sulfide Suspensions. J Phys Chem 88: 3261–3268. doi: 10.1021/j150659a025
[20]	Daskalaki VM, Panagiotopoulou P, Kondarides DI (2011) Production of peroxide species in Pt/TiO₂ suspensions under conditions of photocatalytic water splitting and glycerol photoreforming. Chem Eng J 170: 433–439. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2010.11.093
[21]	Sakata T, Kawai T (1981) Heterogeneous photocatalytic production of hydrogen and methane from ethanol and water. Chem Phys Lett 80: 341–344. doi: 10.1016/0009-2614(81)80121-2
[22]	Antoniadou M, Kondarides DI, Dionysiou DD, et al. (2012) Quantum dot sensitized titania applicable as photoanode in photoactivated fuel cells. J Phys Chem 116: 16901–16909.
[23]	Kondarides DI, Daskalaki VM, Patsoura A, et al. (2008) Hydrogen production by photo-induced reforming of biomass components and derivatives at ambient conditions. Catal Lett 122: 26–32. doi: 10.1007/s10562-007-9330-3
[24]	Rossetti I (2012) Review article: Hydrogen production by photoreforming of renewable substrates. ISRN Chem Eng 2012 Article ID 964936: 21 pages, doi:10.5402/2012/964936.
[25]	Panagiotopoulou P, Antoniadou M, Kondarides DI, et al. (2010) Aldol Condensation Products During Photocatalytic Oxidation of Ethanol in a Photoelectrochemical Cell. Appl Catal B 100: 124–132. doi: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2010.07.021
[26]	Antoniadou M, Panagiotopoulou P, Kondarides DI, et al. (2012) Photocatalysis and Photoelectrocatalysis Using Nanocrystalline Titania Alone or Combined with Pt, RuO₂ or NiO Co-Catalysts. J Appl Electrochem 42: 737–743. doi: 10.1007/s10800-012-0408-2
[27]	Maeda Y, Fujishima A, Honda K (1981) The Investigation of Current Doubling Reactions on Semiconductor Photoelectrodes by Temperature Change Measurements. J Electrochem Soc 178: 1731–1734.
[28]	Kalamaras E, Lianos P (2015) Current doubling effect revisited: Current multiplication in a PhotoFuelCell. J Electroanal Chem 751: 37–42. doi: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2015.05.029
[29]	Antoniadou M, Han C, Sfaelou S, et al. (2013) Solar energy conversion using Photo-Fuel-Cells. Sci Adv Mater 5: 1–8. doi: 10.1166/sam.2013.1423
[30]	Antoniadou M, Sfaelou S, Lianos P (2014) Quantum dot sensitized titania for photo-fuel-cell and for water splitting operation in the presence of sacrificial agents. Chem Eng J 254: 245–251. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.05.106
[31]	Antoniadou M, Lianos P (2009) Near Ultraviolet and Visible light photoelectrochemical degradation of organic substances producing electricity and hydrogen. J Photochem Photobiol A 204: 69–74. doi: 10.1016/j.jphotochem.2009.02.001
[32]	Monfort O, Pop L-C, Sfaelou S, et al. (2016) Photoelectrocatalytic hydrogen production by water splitting using BiVO₄ photoanodes. Chem Eng J 286: 91–97. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2015.10.043
[33]	Selli E, Chiarello GL, Quartarone E, et al. (2007) A photocatalytic water splitting device for separate hydrogen and oxygen evolution. Chem Commun 5022–5024.
[34]	Gan J, Lu X, Tong Y (2014) Towards highly efficient photoanodes: boosting sunlight-driven semiconductor nanomaterials for water oxidation. Nanoscale 6: 7142–7164. doi: 10.1039/c4nr01181c
[35]	Horiuchi Y, Toyao T, Takeuchi M, et al. (2013) Recent advances in visible-light-responsive photocatalysts for hydrogen production and solar energy conversion-from semiconducting TiO₂ to MOF/PCP photocatalysts. Phys Chem Chem Phys 15: 13243–13253. doi: 10.1039/c3cp51427g
[36]	Bhatt MD, Lee JS (2015) Recent theoretical progress in the development of photoanode materials for solar water splitting photoelectrochemical cells. J Mater Chem A 3: 10632–10659. doi: 10.1039/C5TA00257E
[37]	Pop LC, Dracopoulos V, Lianos P (2015) Photoelectrocatalytic hydrogen production using nanoparticulate titania and a novel Pt/Carbon electrocatalyst: The concept of the “Photoelectrocatalytic Leaf”. Appl Surf Sci 333: 147–151.
[38]	Gao P, Grätzel M, Nazeeruddin MK (2014) Organohalide lead perovskites for photovoltaic applications. Energy Environ Sci 7: 2448–2463.
[39]	Alexander BD, Kulesza PJ, Solarska R, et al. (2008) Metal Oxide photoanodes for solar hydrogen production. J Mater Chem 18: 2298–2303. doi: 10.1039/b718644d
[40]	Fujimoto I, Wang N, Saito R, et al. (2014) WO₃/BiVO₄ composite photoelectrode prepared by improved auto-combustion method for highly efficient water splitting. Int J Hydrogen Energ 39: 2454–2461. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.08.114
[41]	Zhu T, Chong MN, Chan ES (2014) Nanostructured Tungsten Trioxide Thin Films Synthesized For Photoelectrocatalytic Water Oxidation: A Review. Chem Sus Chem 7: 2974–2997. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201402089
[42]	Liu X, Wang F, Wang Q (2012) Nanostructure-Based WO₃ Photoanodes For Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. Phys Chem Chem Phys 14: 7894–7911. doi: 10.1039/c2cp40976c
[43]	Mirbagheri N, Wang D, Peng C, et al. (2014) Visible Light Driven Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation by Zn- and Ti-Doped Hematite Nanostructures. ACS Catal 4: 2006–2015. doi: 10.1021/cs500372v
[44]	Mishra M, Chun D-M (2015) α-Fe2O3 as a photocatalytic material: A review. Appl Catal A 498: 126–141. doi: 10.1016/j.apcata.2015.03.023
[45]	Wang W, Tade MO, Shao Z (2015) Research progress of perovskite materials in photocatalysis- and photovoltaics-related energy conversion and environmental treatment. Chem Soc Rev 44: 5371–5408.
[46]	Brüller S, Liang H-W, Kramm UI, et al. (2015) Bimetallic porous porphyrin polymer-derived non-precious metal electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions. J Mater Chem 3: 23799–23808.
[47]	Xi FX, Liu HC, Li WP, et al. (2015) Fabricating CuS counter electrode for quantum dots-sensitized solar cell via electro-deposition and sulfurization of Cu₂O. Electrochim Acta 178: 329–335. doi: 10.1016/j.electacta.2015.08.020
[48]	Balis N, Dracopoulos V, Bourikas K, et al. (2013) Quantum dot sensitized solar cells based on an optimized combination of ZnS, CdS and CdSewith CoS and CuS counter electrodes. Electrochim Acta 91: 246–252. doi: 10.1016/j.electacta.2013.01.004
[49]	Sayama K, Nomura A, Zou Z, et al. (2003) Photoelectrochemical decomposition of water on Nanocrystalline BiVO₄ film electrodes under visible light. Chem Commun 2908–2909.
[50]	Liu X, Wang F, Wang Q (2012) Nanostructure-Based WO₃ Photoanodes For Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting. Phys Chem Chem Phys 14: 7894–7911. doi: 10.1039/c2cp40976c
[51]	Varghese OK, Grimes CA (2008) Appropriate strategies for determining the photoconversion efficiency of water photoelectrolysis cells: A review with examples using Titania nanotube array photoanodes. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 92: 374–384. doi: 10.1016/j.solmat.2007.11.006

Reader Comments

Your name:*

Email:*
© 2016 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)