Researchers of the IREC Energy Storage, Harvesting and Catalysis group address the relevant breakthroughs in the development and optimization of photocatalytic materials of interest in photoelectrochemical or photosynthetic cells for the production of fuels, such as hydrogen, CxHyOz compounds, syngas (with potential for further fuel generation) or ammonia as energy vectors. Articles facing electrochemical fuel production are also included in the scope of the issue as they can be used in electrolyzers coupled to photovoltaic cells.
Our society urgently needs a new energy paradigm based on clean energy sources to mitigate the existing climate change on our planet. The deployment of carbon-free energy technologies that could compete with the price of fossil fuels is expected to be a key factor for sustaining the future energy requirements of the world population. Solar energy has a high potential to meet most of the energy needs. Then, the production of fuels derived from light-assisted catalytic reactions is a potentially clean, cheap, and renewable route for solar energy storage in the form of chemical bonds by the use of semiconductor materials.
In the case of the photoelectrochemical cells, non-optimal performance of the materials used as photoelectrodes in both anodic and cathodic half-reactions precludes its technological development. Such limitations derive from different factors such as optical constraints (low absorption coefficients, high band gaps), poor charge transport, poor photostability or low kinetics for the desired reactions. In photocatalytic reactions, besides the same limitations inherent to such kind of materials, additional thermodynamic requirements should be met for driving the overall process. This Special Issue aims to address relevant breakthroughs in the development and optimization of photocatalytic materials of interest in photoelectrochemical or photosynthetic cells for the production of fuels, such as hydrogen, CxHyOz compounds, syngas (with potential for further fuel generation) or ammonia as energy vectors. Articles facing electrochemical fuel production are also included in the scope of the issue as they can be used in electrolyzers coupled to photovoltaic cells.
Reference article:
Dr. María Isabel Díez García, Dr. Sebastian Murcia López, Prof. Dr. Joan Ramon Morante Lleonart, Photoelectrochemical and Photocatalytic Materials for Fuel Production. Special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). Photocatalysis in MDPI journals
