Publication date: 21st July 2025
Photoelectrochemical systems serve as prototype of artificial photosynthesis devices to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals from abundant and waste feedstocks. However, they are far from their practical utilization due to instability in aqueous environments and poor selectivity towards specific redox conversion reactions. The talk will focus on the main question, i.e., Do we have semiconductors that have intrinsic stability, and offer surface activity for PEC reactions?
I will introduce specific chalcogenide Cu(In,Ga)S2 photocathodes that are interesting due to their bandgap tunability and defect-rich surface chemistry. Our results show that PEC CO2R can be directly facilitated on bare CIGS surface producing CO and HCOO- at Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 32 % and 14 % respectively, without any transport layer or co-catalyst. Mechanistic analyses and atomistic simulations reveal the role of surface composition to be critical for stability and activity towards CO2R.[1] The aqueous stability and defect-rich surface of CIGS ensures adequate PEC activity towards nitrate (NO3-) to ammonia (NH3) conversion. Our work highlights the discovery of a compositionally rich and stable system active for different redox reactions. The findings are useful to design highly stable and active photocathodes for driving photoelectrochemical reactions. I will finish my talk highlighting the opportunities and challenges ahead in realizing a standalone artificial leaf-like devices from emerging chalcogenide semiconductors.
(1) European Union's Horizon Europe program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101067667. (2) Liquid Sunlight Alliance, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Fuels from Sunlight Hub under Award Number DE-SC0021266. (3) Catalisti VLAIO (Vlaanderen Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen) through the Moonshot SYN-CAT project (HBC.2020.2614), FWO for KESPER (M-ERA.NET) grant agreement No 958174, and FOTON (Interreg) project.
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