Hydrogen fuel from sunlight.
© 2011 EPFL
Highly active oxide photocathode for photoelectrochemical water reduction.
A clean and efficient way to overcome the limited supply of fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect is the production of hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water through the semiconductor/water junction of a photoelectrochemical cell, where energy collection and water electrolysis are combined into a single semiconductor electrode. The group of Prof. Michaël Grätzel (LPI - Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces) present a highly active photocathode for solar H2 production, consisting of electrodeposited cuprous oxide, which was protected against photocathodic decomposition in water by nanolayers of Al-doped zinc oxide and titanium oxide and activated for hydrogen evolution with electrodeposited Pt nanoparticles.
Adriana Paracchino et al., Nature Materials, doi:10.1038/nmat3017 (2011)