Scientific Achievement

  • Researchers in the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) studied that using perovskites as light absorbers to increase photovoltage and an alternative anodic reaction replaces the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in a photoelectrochemical system. This approach lowers voltage requirements, boosts current density, and enhances the solar-driven production of value-added multicarbon products

Significance and Impact

  • The high thermodynamic demand for water splitting and the slow kinetics of the OER limit artificial photosynthesis applications
  • Replace the OER with glycerol oxidation (GOR), reducing voltage requirements. Additionally, perovskite provides adequate photovoltage for CO2 reduction photocathode
  • The GOR-coupled perovskite devices lower the voltage requirement, enhancing bias-free photocurrent density for C2 hydrocarbon production
  • These results provide a proof-of-concept demonstration for simultaneous solar-driven multicarbon synthesis and biomass-derived waste conversion into value-added products, which may ultimately contribute towards a sustainable fuel and chemical economy

Research Details

  • Integrated lead halide perovskite photoabsorbers with copper nanoflower electrocatalysts, achieving 9.8% Faradaic yield for  hydrocarbons at 0 V vs. RHE
  • The perovskite photocathode, paired with a silicon nanowire GOR photoanode, achieved unassisted photocurrent densities of ~2 mA/cm2 with ethane and ethylene Faradaic yields between 5% and 10% under 1 sun irradiation

V. Andrei, I. Roh, J.-A. Lin, J. Lee, Y. Shan, C.-K. Lin, S. Shelton, E. Reisner, P. Yang, Nature Catalysis (2025).

DOI:10.1038/s41929-025-01292-y

Work was performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Cal Tech, NREL, SLAC, University of Oregon, University of California Irvine, and University of California San Diego.