Photovoltaic-Powered Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction: Benchmarking against the Theoretical Limit

Abstract

In this work, benchmarking against the theoretical limit and against water splitting was used to indicate the promise of photovoltaic-powered electrochemical CO 2 reduction. A benchmark device was built by the successful integration of high-performance cathode, anode, membrane-electrodeassembly reactor and dual-junction photoabsorber. This is the first report on dual-junction photoabsorber-driven CO 2 electrolysis. We experimentally demonstrated a record-high solar-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency of 21.3% and a projected efficiency of 25.3%. This performance metric remarkably reaches 87% of the theoretical efficiency limit and surpasses the solar-to-hydrogen efficiency based on the same photoabsorber. This work paves the way for efficient solar fuel production with solar CO as the intermediate.

Highly Potent Transparent Passive Cooling Coating via Microphase-Separated Hydrogel Combining Radiative and Evaporative Cooling

“…Equations 2 and 3 17 relate the average temperature reduction (ΔT avg ) and total energy yield to I solar :…”