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

PI：布鲁斯A.帕金森提案编号：1512551太阳能发电本质上是一个间歇性的过程，因为太阳能电池在夜间不发电。 因此，在某些时候，将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。 一种方法是使用太阳能电池产生的一部分电力为电池充电，电池在夜间放电。 该项目将开发和研究一种新型的太阳能驱动的存储设备，将太阳能？将光子直接转化为电化学能。这种电池使用流动的电解质，其在白天使用一种类型的电极以电化学能的形式存储光能，然后在晚上使用不同类型的电极反转流动以再生电解质并发电。 通过这个过程，消除了对额外的太阳能电池的需要，以产生用于对电池再充电的电力，以及电池本身。 作为该项目教育和推广活动的一部分，首席研究员将扩大成功的太阳氢活动研究工具包（SHARK）计划，在那里，大学生和高中生被招募来帮助发现新的电极材料，这可能是有用的光-该项目描述了一种收集和储存太阳能的新概念，在液流电池配置中的电化学能量？太阳能驱动的氧化还原液流电池。 这项研究的目标是表征半导体/氧化还原电解质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。将研究单晶n型和p型半导体电极如Si、GaAs、GaP和InP的光氧化高度氧化（n型）或光还原高度还原（p型）氧化还原物质的能力。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，其可以通过在互补氧化还原对的累积下操作相同的电极来回收。这些电极材料在水溶液中照射时通常不稳定，因此原子层沉积（ALD）将用于在其表面涂覆二氧化钛薄层。这些稳定的半导体的电流电压行为将使用循环伏安法和流体动力学方法在黑暗中和照明下，并与一系列的氧化还原电解质测量。 这些实验将阐明电子转移动力学以及光通量和光电流产生的质量传输限制。还将研究具有氧化还原对的暗电极反应的行为。 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。

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.