Fiechter, S.: Photoelectrochemical Water Decomposition. In: D. Stolten and B. Edmonts [Ed.] : Hydrogen Science and Engineering : Materials, Processes, Systems and Technology / volume 1WILEY-VCH, 2016. - ISBN 978-3-527-33238-0, p. 441-459
Open Access Version
(available 01.01.3000)Abstract:
The generation of fuels from sunlight and water is considered as a task of paramount impor-tance for a sustainable energy supply in the future. Decomposition of water by a photoelectrochemical process is a possibility to store solar energy in form of hydrogen in a large scale. For this purpose, a membrane can be used which immersed in an aqueous electrolyte and illuminated by sunlight is able to split water into hydrogen and oxy¬gen. Such a device is frequently addressed as an artificial leaf. From an economic and environ¬mental point of view this device should consist of cheap, abundant and non-toxic elements featuring a Solar-to-Hydrogen (STH) efficiency > 10% and generating hydrogen at a price of ~3 €/kg H2. Such a device could solve the inherent problem of energy storage of sunlight, having the discontinuous and only periodic availability of sunlight and the storage of regenerative energies in general in mind. Fuels, which are indispensable to guarantee mobility, can be obtained by converting solar hydrogen in a second step into hydrocarbons.