title: Semiconductor-Based, Solar-Driven Photochemical Cells for Fuel Generation from Carbon Dioxide in Aqueous Solutions.
abstract: There has been active interest to identify new methods to reduce CO2into usable fuel sources. In this work, we demonstrate two types of photo-electrochemical cells (PECs) that photoreduce CO2directly to formate in aqueous solutions both in the presence and absence of external bias or additional electron sources. The photocathodes were either a CuFeO2/CuO electrode or a bilayer of CdTe on NiO, whereas the photoanode was a bilayer of NiOxon CdS. The PECs were characterized by using both electrochemistry and spectroscopy, and the products formed from CO2reduction were characterized and quantified by using1H NMR spectroscopy and ESI-MS. In addition, an organohydride catalyst was tested in conjunction with the PECs, which not only showed a significant gain of 85 times in CO2reduction (27 μm formate without the catalyst, 2.3 mm formate with it) compared to the NiO/CdTe photocathode system but could also generate methanol under an external bias (10 μm).
authors: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
authors: Omer
authors: O
authors: Yehezkeli
authors: Chemicals and Materials Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO, USA.
authors: Nicholas M
authors: NM
authors: Bedford
authors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
authors: Eunsol
authors: E
authors: Park
authors: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
authors: Ke
authors: K
authors: Ma
authors: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.|Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
authors: Jennifer N
authors: JN
authors: Cha
mesh_terms: D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004563:Electrochemistry; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D012666:Semiconductors; D012996:Solutions; D013472:Sunlight; D013691:Tellurium / Q000737:chemistry; D017971:Tin Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D012996:Solutions; D017971:Tin Compounds; D014867:Water; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C109984:indium tin oxide; D009532:Nickel; C028007:nickel monoxide; D013691:Tellurium; C028337:cadmium telluride
keywords: copper; electrochemistry; nickel; photochemistry; reduction