Scientists from Vernadsky Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry and Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine have developed Experimental photoelectrochemical cell for hydrogen accumulation under the action of sunlight. When the anode of this device is exposed to Sun, its cathode starts to produce hydrogen via photoelectrochemical reactions.
Such system can be used to generate hydrogen, which can be transformed later into electricity in a fuel cell, where hydrogen is oxidized by oxygen from air. It can be also used as a photoaccumulator, which will ensure uninterrupted power supply of consumers under conditions of changing light intensity.
To build such an photoelectrochemical cell, H. Kolbasov with his team have synthetized photosensitive electrodes based on polycrystalline films of semiconducting oxides, sulfides and selenides of metals, which have graphene-like structure and are modified with nanoparticles of some semiconductors. They have studied charge transfer mechanism and possibilities to increase the efficiency of the system.
Obtained in such system hydrogen is very clean, it does not require further processing before utilization. In addition, it is cheaper than hydrogen obtained via solid-state solar cells with electrolyzer.
This photoelectrochemical cell will be competitive with similar systems from the USA, Japan, Germany and Canada. To protect the intellectual property, scientists have obtained patents.
Currently, the team is working on development of photoelectrochemical cell (photoaccumulator), in which the chemical energy is accumulated hydrogen is used to generate electricity. They invite all interested parties for collaboration.
You can learn more technical details and find contact information in this document.
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