A novel model for pyro-electro-catalytic hydrogen production in pure water

Abstract

The pyro-electro-catalytic induced generation of hydrogen gas is an environmentally friendly and sustainable way to convert excess thermal energy into a storable form.

Water Splitting: From Electrode to Green Energy System

“…Recently, water splitting driven by pyroelectric element attracts much attention for it provides an alternative approach to generate H 2 from instantaneous low-grade waste heat or natural temperature variations [184][185][186][187][188]. For instance, Xie and Brown et al proposed to apply pyroelectric effect to produce a large enough electric potential between two electrodes for water splitting into H 2 and O 2 gas.…”

Thermal Energy Harvesting Using Pyroelectric-Electrochemical Coupling in Ferroelectric Materials

“…The first evidence on the polarization-driven pyroelectric water splitting was explored by pioneering modelling in 2016, 2,18,19 which considered a PbTiO 3 ferroelectric surface, which is a high T c pyroelectric with a T c $ 495 C, with further developments of modelling approaches in 2019. 24 This work demonstrated that it is thermodynamically possible to split water into oxygen and hydrogen by thermally cycling the material surface above and below its T c when in contact with water molecules, 18 a similar mechanism (Figure 1A) was also proposed to enable air purification by the decomposition, or oxidation, of a gaseous pollutants. 2 Experimentally, there are two potential configurations to couple pyroelectric effects with electrochemistry.…”

“…Potential applications that have been considered to date include, air purification, 2 water disinfection, 3,4 degradation of water pollutants, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and water splitting for hydrogen generation. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] For conventional ferroelectric applications such as piezoelectric and pyroelectric transducers that act as energy harvesters, 27 pressure and thermal sensors and ultrasonic devices or actuators, significant effort has been undertaken to develop ferroelectric materials with a high Curie temperature (T c ) 28,29 ; often well above ambient conditions (>100 C). In contrast, the use of ferroelectrics with a low T c (e.g., <100 C) is often restricted for transducer applications due to a lack of thermal stability as a result of the phase transition from a ferroelectric non-centrosymmetric crystal structure to a paraelectric centrosymmetric state above the T c , whereby the polarization level and the ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric properties are lost.…”

Pyrocatalytic oxidation – strong size-dependent poling effect on catalytic activity of pyroelectric BaTiO3 nano- and microparticles

“…In recent years, various experimental and some theoretical studies investigated the catalytic potential of pyroelectric materials for water remediation (disinfection, 20 micropollutant degradation 22,23 ) but also for hydrogen generation through water splitting. [24][25][26] Several studies introduced new pyrocatalysts (LiNbO 3 , LiTaO 3 , BaTiO 3 , BiFeO 3 , etc.) with different particle shapes (e.g.…”