SusChEM: Solar Energy Storage via Photoredox Chemistry at Single Crystal and Porous Semiconductor Electrodes

SusChEM：通过单晶和多孔半导体电极上的光氧化还原化学存储太阳能

• 批准号: 1512551
• 负责人: Bruce Parkinson
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Wyoming
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2020-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1512551&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SusChEM; Solar; Energy; Storage; via

PI: Bruce A. Parkinson Proposal Number: 1512551The production of electricity by solar energy is inherently an intermittent process because solar cells do not generate electricity at night. Therefore, at some point, grid-scale energy storage systems will be needed to collect some of the solar energy and convert it to a form that can be converted back to electricity at night. One way is to use a portion of the electricity generated by solar cells to re-charge batteries, which are discharged at night. This project will develop and study the performance a novel solar-driven storage device that will convert the sun?s photons directly to electrochemical energy. This battery uses a flowing electrolyte which stores light energy in the form of electrochemical energy using one type of electrode during the day, and then reverses the flow to regenerate the electrolyte and generate electricity using a different type of electrode at night. By this process, the need for extra solar cells to generate electricity for re-charging the batteries, as well as the battery itself, is eliminated. As part of the education and outreach activities of this project, the principal investigator will expand the successful Solar Hydrogen Activity Research Kit (SHARK) program, where undergraduates and high school students are recruited to help discover new electrode materials that could be useful for the light-driven electrolysis of water to hydrogen gas or for use in the device described above.This project describes a new concept to collect and store solar energy as electrochemical energy in a flow battery configuration ? the solar driven redox flow battery. The goal of this proposed research is to characterize the behavior of semiconductor/redox electrolyte interfaces in the dark and under illumination to optimize photo-driven redox reactions. Single crystal n- and p-type semiconductor electrodes such as Si, GaAs, GaP and InP will be investigated for their ability to photo-oxidize highly oxidizing (n-type) or photo-reduce highly reducing (p-type) redox species. The use of n- and p-type semiconductors in a tandem configuration enables light energy to be stored as electrochemical potential energy that can be recovered by operating the same electrodes under accumulation with the complementary redox couple. These electrode materials are usually unstable when illuminated in aqueous solution, and so atomic layer deposition (ALD) will be used to coat their surface with thin layers of titanium dioxide. The current voltage behavior of these stabilized semiconductors will be measured using both cyclic voltammetry and hydrodynamic methods in the dark and under illumination and with a series of redox electrolytes. These experiments will elucidate the electron transfer kinetics as well as light flux and mass transport limitations of photocurrent generation. The behavior of the dark electrode reactions with redox couples will also be investigated. The light and dark behavior will then be compared to the physical models developed for these processes.

派：布鲁斯·A·帕金森建议书编号：1512551太阳能发电本质上是一个间歇性的过程，因为太阳能电池不在夜间发电。因此，在某种程度上，需要电网规模的储能系统来收集一些太阳能，并将其转换为可以在夜间转换回电力的形式。一种方法是利用太阳能电池产生的部分电力为电池充电，电池在夜间放电。本项目将开发和研究一种新型的太阳能驱动存储装置，将太阳的S光子直接转化为电化学能量。这种电池使用流动的电解液，白天用一种电极以电化学能的形式储存光能，晚上用另一种电极逆转流动，再生电解液并发电。通过这一过程，不再需要额外的太阳能电池来为电池充电发电，也不需要电池本身。作为该项目的教育和推广活动的一部分，首席研究人员将扩大成功的太阳氢活动研究工具包(SHARK)计划，在该计划中，招募本科生和高中生来帮助发现新的电极材料，这些材料可能有助于光驱动将水电解为氢气或用于上述设备。该项目描述了一种新的概念，即在液流电池配置中收集和存储太阳能作为电化学能量？太阳能驱动的氧化还原液流电池。这项拟议的研究的目标是表征半导体/氧化还原电解液界面在黑暗和光照下的行为，以优化光驱动的氧化还原反应。单晶n型和p型半导体电极，如硅、砷化镓、GaP和InP，将被用于光氧化高氧化(n型)或光还原(p型)氧化还原物种的能力的研究。在串联配置中使用n型和p型半导体使得光能能够被存储为电化学势能，该电化学势能可以通过在互补的氧化还原对的累积下操作相同的电极来恢复。这些电极材料在水溶液中照射时通常是不稳定的，因此将采用原子层沉积(ALD)的方法在其表面覆盖一层薄薄的二氧化钛。在黑暗、光照和一系列氧化还原电解液中，将使用循环伏安法和流体动力学方法测量这些稳定的半导体的电流-电压行为。这些实验将阐明电子转移动力学以及光电流产生的光通量和质量传输限制。还将研究暗电极与氧化还原电对的反应行为。然后将光和暗的行为与为这些过程开发的物理模型进行比较。