A Hydrogen Farm Strategy for Scalable Solar Hydrogen Production with Particulate Photocatalysts
Yüe Zhao, Chunmei Ding, Jian Zhu, Wei Qin, Xiaoping Tao, Fengtao Fan, Rengui Li, Can Li
Abstract
Abstract Scalable solar hydrogen production by water splitting using particulate photocatalysts is promising for renewable energy utilization. However, photocatalytic overall water splitting is challenging owing to slow water oxidation kinetics, severe reverse reaction, and H 2 /O 2 gas separation. Herein, mimicking nature photosynthesis, a practically feasible approach named Hydrogen Farm Project (HFP) is presented, which is composed of solar energy capturing and hydrogen production subsystems integrated by a shuttle ion loop, Fe 3+ /Fe 2+ . Well‐defined BiVO 4 crystals with precisely tuned {110}/{010} facets are ideal photocatalysts to realize the HFP, giving up to 71 % quantum efficiency for photocatalytic water oxidation and full forward reaction with nearly no reverse reaction. An overall solar‐to‐chemical efficiency over 1.9 % and a solar‐to‐hydrogen efficiency exceeding 1.8 % could be achieved. Furthermore, a scalable HFP panel for solar energy storage was demonstrated under sunlight outdoors.