Tom Bosserez

Air-based photoelectrochemical cell capturing water molecules from ambient air for hydrogen production

A system is demonstrated that autonomously produces hydrogen gas using sunlight and outside air as the only inputs. Oxygen and hydrogen formation reactions occur on either side of a monolithic “solar membrane” inserted in a two-compartment photoelectrochemical cell. A surface film of Nafion® serves as a solid electrolyte. This proof of concept invites further development of air-based cells.

Manganese oxide films with controlled oxidation state for water splitting devices through a combination of atomic layer deposition and post-deposition annealing

Solar hydrogen devices combine the power of photovoltaics and water electrolysis to produce hydrogen in a hybrid form of energy production. To engineer these into integrated devices (i.e. a water splitting catalyst on top of a PV element), the need exists for thin film catalysts that are both transparent for solar light and efficient in water splitting. Manganese oxides have already been shown to exhibit good water splitting performance, which can be further enhanced by conformal coating on high surface-area structures. The latter can be achieved by atomic layer deposition (ALD). However, to optimize the catalytic and transparency properties of the water splitting layer, an excellent control over the oxidation state of the manganese in the film is required. So far MnO, Mn3O4 and MnO2 ALD have been shown, while Mn2O3 is the most promising catalyst. Therefore, we investigated the post-deposition oxidation and reduction of MnO and MnO2 ALD films, and derived strategies to achieve every phase in the MnO–MnO2 range by tuning the ALD process and post-ALD annealing conditions. Thin film Mn2O3 is obtained by thermal reduction of ALD MnO2, without the need for oxidative high temperature treatments. The obtained Mn2O3 is examined for solar water splitting devices, and compared to the as-deposited MnO2. Both thin films show oxygen evolution activity and good solar light transmission.

Vapor-fed solar hydrogen production exceeding 15% efficiency using earth abundant catalysts and anion exchange membrane

Vapor-fed solar hydrogen generators can convert water vapor from the air into hydrogen using sunlight as the energy source. Hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions are performed in the gas phase in cathode and anode compartments separated by a membrane. Anion exchange membranes show great promise for this type of solar hydrogen generator. They provide an alkaline environment enabling the use of earth abundant materials as electrocatalysts. In this work, a vapor-fed solar hydrogen generator with KOH-doped poly(vinyl alcohol) anion exchange membrane flanked with NiFe and NiMo catalysts is demonstrated. The device reached an average 15.1% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency at room temperature and 95% relative humidity. This first demonstration of gas phase water splitting with earth abundant catalysts and anion exchange membrane opens a pathway to low cost, autonomous, efficient and safe solar hydrogen generators.

Harvesting Hydrogen Gas from Air Pollutants with an Unbiased Gas Phase Photoelectrochemical Cell

The concept of an all-gas-phase photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell producing hydrogen gas from volatile organic contaminated gas and light is presented. Without applying any external bias, organic contaminants are degraded and hydrogen gas is produced in separate electrode compartments. The system works most efficiently with organic pollutants in inert carrier gas. In the presence of oxygen, the cell performs less efficiently but still significant photocurrents are generated, showing the cell can be run on organic contaminated air. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate new application opportunities of PEC technology and to encourage further advancement toward PEC remediation of air pollution with the attractive feature of simultaneous energy recovery and pollution abatement.

Monolithic solar water splitting: introducing porosity in multijunction solar cells with minimal degradation to enable ionic shortcuts

We propose a new design for monolithic solar water splitting based on porous multijunction solar cells. Porosity, causing minimal solar cell degradation, minimizes the ohmic losses associated to ion transport, maintaining high efficiencies when up-scaling.