Photoelectroreduction of Building‐Block Chemicals

Abstract

Conventional photoelectrochemical cells utilize solar energy to drive the chemical conversion of water or CO 2 into useful chemical fuels.Such processes are confronted with general challenges,i ncluding the low intrinsic activities and inconvenient storage and transportation of their gaseous products.Aphotoelectrochemical approach is proposed to drive the reductive production of industrial building-block chemicals and demonstrate that succinic acid and glyoxylic acid can be readily synthesized on Si nanowire arrayp hotocathodes free of any cocatalyst and at room temperature.These photocathodes exhibit ap ositive onset potential, large saturation photocurrent density,h igh reaction selectivity,a nd excellent operation durability.T hey capitalizeo nt he large photovoltage generated from the semiconductor/electrolyte junction to partially offset the required external bias,a nd therebymake this photoelectrosynthetic approach significantly more sustainable compared to traditional electrosynthesis.

Synthesis and Applications of Nanostructured Hollow Transition Metal Chalcogenides

“…So photocatalytic and electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction play a vital role in this respect, which can effectively transform this problem into practical products. [ 39–68 ]…”