Journal article
Materials for solar fuels and chemicals
SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Shriram Center, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, California 94305, USA.1
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.2
Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.3
The conversion of sunlight into fuels and chemicals is an attractive prospect for the storage of renewable energy, and photoelectrocatalytic technologies represent a pathway by which solar fuels might be realized. However, there are numerous scientific challenges in developing these technologies. These include finding suitable materials for the absorption of incident photons, developing more efficient catalysts for both water splitting and the production of fuels, and understanding how interfaces between catalysts, photoabsorbers and electrolytes can be designed to minimize losses and resist degradation.
In this Review, we highlight recent milestones in these areas and some key scientific challenges remaining between the current state of the art and a technology that can effectively convert sunlight into fuels and chemicals.
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group UK |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Pages: | 70-81 |
| ISSN: | 14764660 and 14761122 |
| Types: | Journal article |
| DOI: | 10.1038/nmat4778 |
