The renewabilization of human society is hindered by mismatches in the type, time, and place of renewable energy sources. In particular, we have only developed efficient technology to produce electricity from wind and solar resources, which are limited by the availability of these natural resources (e.g., the Sun shines only during a narrow window of the day and varies considerably in intensity by geography). Developing storage and conversion technologies to penetrate these abundant power sources into our energy economy is critical.
Solar fuels have emerged as promising intermediaries for renewable energy that can bridge the mismatch between renewable energy generation and consumption profiles. Solar fuels are produced by converting renewable solar energy into chemical bonds that can be harvested later through combustion or fuel cells. Green hydrogen, which is so named because it is produced from renewable energy (e.g., solar, wind) and renewable feedstocks (water) is one of the most promising solar fuels.
Our group is focused on developing new technologies that can decrease the cost of green hydrogen below the critical market level of $1-2/kg H2. We achieve this through understanding new materials like halide perovskites and developing cost-effective devices like photoelectrochemical cells.
Austin, Ayush, and Faiz co-developed a novel anticorrosion barrier called Conductive Adhesive Barrier (or CAB) to protect the perovskite solar cell from contacting the electrolyte during PEC operation. The CAB preserves the conversion of solar to electric efficiency of the solar cell by >99%. It also enables a Solar-to-Hydrogen record efficiency of 20.8% when operated on a Si-Perovksite tandem for unassisted solar water splitting reaction.
(Fehr, A.M.K., Agrawal, A., Mandani, F. et al. Nat Commun 14, 3797 (2023))
