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Photoelectrochemical water splitting in separate oxygen and hydrogen cells
Open accessAbstract
Solar water splitting provides a promising path for sustainable hydrogen production and solar energy storage. One of the greatest challenges towards large-scale utilization of this technology is reducing the hydrogen production cost. The conventional electrolyser architecture, where hydrogen and oxygen are co-produced in the same cell, gives rise to critical challenges in photoelectrochemical water splitting cells that directly convert solar energy and water to hydrogen. Here we overcome these challenges by separating the hydrogen and oxygen cells. The ion exchange in our cells is mediated by auxiliary electrodes, and the cells are connected to each other only by metal wires, enabling centralized hydrogen production. We demonstrate hydrogen generation in separate cells with solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 7.5%, which can readily surpass 10% using standard commercial components. A basic cost comparison shows that our approach is competitive with conventional photoelectrochemical systems, enabling safe and potentially affordable solar hydrogen production.
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“water electrolysis still necessitates a continuous input of high-purity electrolyte and an external power supply to maintain the system.[29,36]”
From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
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Non-noble metal-nitride based electrocatalysts for high-performance alkaline seawater electrolysis
Yu, L., Zhu, Q., Song, S., McElhenny, B., Wang, D., Wu, C., Qin, Z., Bao, J., Yu, Y., Chen, S., et al. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13092-7 · Cited by 1,333
Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Overall and Hybrid Water Splitting
Quan, L., Jiang, H., Mei, G., Sun, Y., & You, B. (2024) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00332 · Cited by 874
Toward practical solar hydrogen production – an artificial photosynthetic leaf-to-farm challenge
Kim, J. H., Hansora, D., Sharma, P., Jang, J., & Lee, J. S. (2019) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/c8cs00699g · Cited by 1,355
Water electrolysers with closed and open electrochemical systems
Lagadec, M. F., & Grimaud, A. (2020) · Nature Materials · doi:10.1038/s41563-020-0788-3 · Cited by 758
“However, when integrating soluble mediators or a proton-insertion electrode, the kinetics for charge transfer c Selected emerging water electrolysers: impact of component modi cation and constraint release Separate catalytic Mo2C/RuO2 or IrO2/SiO2 reactor beds for H2/O2 production without gas crossover • Lower complex…”
BackgroundInfluentialA review and comparative evaluation of thermochemical water splitting cycles for hydrogen production
Safari, F., & Dinçer, İ. (2019) · Energy Conversion and Management · doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112182 · Cited by 680
Metadata
- Authors
- Landman, A., Dotan, H., Shter, G. E., Wullenkord, M., Houaijia, A., Maljusch, A., Grader, G. S., & Rothschild, A.
- Affiliations
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL)
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (DE)
- Evonik (Germany) (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Grader, Gideon S.
- Rothschild, Avner
- Venue
- Nature Materials
- Published
- 2017-03-13
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 646-651
- ISSN
- 1476-1122 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4660
- OpenAlex
- W2595002228
- Cited by
- 572
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 69 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 65 · 2018: 46 · 2017: 13
- FWCI
- 13.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Nature Materials (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- elib (German Aerospace Center) (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Iron oxide chemistry and applications
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Keywords
- photoelectrochemical water splitting, solar hydrogen production, auxiliary electrode, ion exchange, solar-to-hydrogen efficiency, hydrogen production cost, solar energy storage
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