Dr. Wei Yang of theState Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, College of Water Resource & Hydropower,has made new progress in the structure design and performance of photocatalytic fuel cells. The research results were published in Chemical Engineering Journal in a paper entitled "Green Supercapacitor Assisted Photocatalytic Fuel Cell System for Sustainable Hydrogen Production". In this paper, a new system of hydrogen production by photochemical cell assisted by supercapacitor is constructed for the first time, which enables continuous hydrogen production under light and dark in the system. This system has enhancedphotoelectrocatalysis conversion and increased total energy gainby 50%. The first author of the paper is Dr. Wei Yang of the College of Water Resource and hydropower; and Sichuan University is the first work unit.

With the rapid development of economy and society, environmental pollution and energy crisis hamper the sustainable development of modern society.“Photocatalysis for hydrogen production and pollution degradation is of significance for energy recovery and environment protection. However, hydrogen production cannot be maintained due to intermittent illumination during a full-day. To solve this issue, in this paper, we herein developed a green supercapacitor assisted photocatalytic fuel cell system with a chemical bias, which aimed for storing photoelectrons by supercapacitors (2 mg/cm²) under light irradiation and discharging for hydrogen production under dark to enable continuous hydrogen production. The results suggested that the system can achieve a sustainable hydrogen production under illumination (32 μmol/L) and in dark (13 μmol/L), and an improved efficiency of the photoelectrocatalysis conversion with the chemical bias. In addition, the system exhibited a good degradation capacity of ethylene glycol under illumination with the generation of electricity. This paper provided an alternative approach to achieve continuous hydrogen production, electricity generation and waste degradation using the supercapacitor assisted photocatalytic fuel cell system.”(abstract)

System structure and hydrogen production mechanism

The corresponding curves of electrode current, potential and hydrogen production rate under light / dark conditions

Degradation, potential correspondence and power density of organic matter

This system provides a new solution for the problem of light discontinuity in the application of photoelectrochemical cells in hydrogen production. This research project is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Sichuan University fund for postdoctoral fellows.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894720324967