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The energy infrastructure for fossil fuels is well-established, accounting for approximately 87% of the 16 TW of power consumed globally. For renewable and sustainable energy conversion technologies to play a relevant role at the terrestrial scale, they must be able to scale to the TW level of deployment. This would place a significant demand on the current and future supply of raw materials (chemical elements) used by those technologies. Oftentimes, the average crustal abundance of a chemical element is cited as a measure of its scalability, however another important metric for scalability is the existence (of lack thereof) of mineable ores with a high concentration of the targeted element. This paper aims to provide an overview of the availability of all elements. This is accomplished via a compilation of data for global primary production rates for each element, as a measure of availability at the present time. This work also addresses the potential future availability based on current and possible future primary sources.

The production of fuels from sunlight represents one of the major challenges to the development of a

Surface passivation is a general issue for Si-based photoelectrodes because it progressively hinders electron conduction at the semiconductor/electrolyte interface. In this work, we show that a sputtered 100 nm TiO(2) layer on top of a thin Ti metal layer may be used to protect an n(+)p Si photocathode during photocatalytic H(2) evolution. Although TiO(2) is a semiconductor, we show that it behaves like a metallic conductor would under photocathodic H(2) evolution conditions. This behavior is due to the fortunate alignment of the TiO(2) conduction band with respect to the hydrogen evolution potential, which allows it to conduct electrons from the Si while simultaneously protecting the Si from surface passivation. By using a Pt catalyst the electrode achieves an H(2) evolution onset of 520 mV vs NHE and a Tafel slope of 30 mV when illuminated by the red part (λ > 635 nm) of the AM 1.5 spectrum. The saturation photocurrent (H(2) evolution) was also significantly enhanced by the antireflective properties of the TiO(2) layer. It was shown that with proper annealing conditions these electrodes could run 72 h without significant degradation. An Fe(2+)/Fe(3+) redox couple was used to help elucidate details of the band diagram.

The past 10 years have seen great advances in the field of electrochemical hydrogen evolution. In particular, several new nonprecious metal electrocatalysts, for example, the MoS2 or the Ni2P family of materials, have emerged as contenders for electrochemical hydrogen evolution under harsh acidic conditions offering nearly platinum-like catalytic performance. The developments have been particularly fast in the last 5 years, and the present Perspective highlights key developments and discusses them, along with hydrogen evolution in general, in the context of the global energy problem.

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar-fuel conversion is a promising approach to provide clean and storable fuel (e.g., hydrogen and methanol) directly from sunlight, water and CO. However, major challenges still have to be overcome before commercialization can be achieved. One of the largest barriers to overcome is to achieve a stable PEC reaction in either strongly basic or acidic electrolytes without degradation of the semiconductor photoelectrodes. In this work, we discuss fundamental aspects of protection strategies for achieving stable solid/liquid interfaces. We then analyse the charge transfer mechanism through the protection layers for both photoanodes and photocathodes. In addition, we review protection layer approaches and their stabilities for a wide variety of experimental photoelectrodes for water reduction. Finally, we discuss key aspects which should be addressed in continued work on realizing stable and practical PEC solar water splitting systems.

Ni(Fe)OxHy are the most active catalysts for oxygen evolution in base. For this reason, they are used widely in alkaline electrolyzers. Several open questions remain regarding the reason for their exceptionally high catalytic activity. In this model study, we measure activity trends of mass-selected NiFe nanoparticles for oxygen evolution in 1 M KOH. We complement our activity measurements with electrochemistry-mass spectrometry, taken in operando, and transmission electron microcopy and low energy ion scattering spectroscopy, taken ex situ. Using isotope labelling experiments, we discover that oxygen evolution does not proceed via lattice exchange. Together with particle size trends, the isotope results indicate that oxygen evolution is limited to the near surface region. Using the surface are of the particles, we determine that the turnover frequency is 6.2 ± 1.6 s -1 at an overpotential of 0.3 V, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest reported for oxygen evolution in alkaline solution.

Lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction is a proven method to electrochemically synthesize ammonia; yet the process has so far been unstable, and the continuous deposition of lithium limits its practical applicability. One...