Publication date: 15th December 2025
Electrochemical conversions offer an alternative path towards producing chemicals and fuels while using renewable energy. Emerging electrochemical reactions are gaining interest due to their potential to produce complex molecules and small-scale on-site feedstocks. Many of these reactions occur in near-neutral pH conditions due to the intrinsic nature of the reactants and feedstocks, or to avoid unwanted competing reactions such as hydrogen evolution. Furthermore, the acidification or alkalization of feedstocks may incur higher balance of plant costs, corrosion issues or destabilization of the electrocatalysts and formed liquid products1. Thus, operating under near-neutral pHs can be desired and even sometimes a restriction of the system. However, we hypothesize that near-neutral pH conditions will lead to inherent and non-negligible voltage penalties, decreasing the energy efficiency and economic viability of the process.
Here we use the simplest case of water electrolysis to demonstrate how current-dependent pH conditions at the surface of electrodes in near-neutral pH systems results in ~1 V cell voltage increases from a reaction’s thermodynamic potential. In aqueous electrochemical reactions, the consumption or generation of H+ and OH-, results in considerable pH swings at the electrodes2,3. While these effects are neglected in extreme pH scenarios, under near-neutral pH conditions these local concentration gradients give rise to Nernstian shifts of 0.5-1 V when current densities increase beyond ~50 mA cm-2. Elaborating on this knowledge, we show how and why the cell voltages of semi-mature electrochemical reactions, such as CO2 or NO3- reduction, are limited to much higher minimum thermodynamic potentials than expected. Lastly, we extend this knowledge to emerging electrochemical reactions which also utilize near-neutral pH conditions, and provide specific scenarios to avoid substantial Nernstian penalties.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.