Photoelectrochemical solar water splitting: From basic principles to advanced devices

Abstract

Photoelectrochemical water splitting (PEC) offers a promising path for sustainable generation of hydrogen fuel. However, improving solar fuel water splitting efficiency facing tremendous challenges, due to the energy loss related to fast recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers, electrode degradation, as well as limited light harvesting. This review focuses on the brief introduction of basic fundamental of PEC water splitting and the concept of various types of water splitting approaches. Numerous engineering strategies for the investgating of the higher efficiency of the PEC, including charge separation, light harvesting, and co-catalysts doping, have been discussed. Moreover, recent remarkable progress and developments for PEC water splitting with some promising materials are discussed. Recent advanced applications of PEC are also reviewed. Finally, the review concludes with a summary and future outlook of this hot field.

Rational Design and Construction of Cocatalysts for Semiconductor‐Based Photo‐Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution: A Comprehensive Review

“…[1][2][3][4][5] It is said that the existence of environmental issues partly attributes to the unreasonable use of traditional fossil fuel, such as excessive exploitation and inefficient utilization. Therefore, effective solutions should be proposed to address these issues.…”

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environmental pollution is much worse than imagination. [2][3][4] Photo-electrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a facile photosynthesis route and defined as an electrochemical process which occurs when a semiconductor electrode is under light irradiation in order to convert sunlight into oxygen or hydrogen energy. [1][2][3][4][5] It is said that the existence of environmental issues partly attributes to the unreasonable use of traditional fossil fuel, such as excessive exploitation and inefficient utilization.

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Efficient Photoelectrochemical Performance of γ Irradiated g-C3N4 and Its g-C3N4@BiVO4 Heterojunction for Solar Water Splitting

“…Photoelectrolysis of water produces molecular hydrogen and oxygen which is an obvious and direct way to store solar energy as fuel [2][3][4] . Hydrogen stored its energy in the form of a chemical bond which directly or indirectly reacts with oxygen to release energy.…”

Scalable Core–Shell MoS2/Sb2Se3 Nanorod Array Photocathodes for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

“…Therefore, the use of inexpensive protective materials or catalysts is in high demand, to be suitable for scalable manufacturing. Few efforts have been directed toward using the nonprecious cocatalysts such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) to improve the PEC hydrogen generation further and avoid the photocorrosion of Sb 2 Se 3 . Molybdenum sulfide (MoS 2 ), one of the TMDs, is a typical 2D layered material and has promising properties for HER such as a suitable band alignment and good chemical as well as photocorrosion stability .…”