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. 2016 May 4:7:11470.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms11470.

Seawater usable for production and consumption of hydrogen peroxide as a solar fuel

Kentaro Mase  1 , Masaki Yoneda  1 , Yusuke Yamada  2 , Shunichi Fukuzumi  1   3   4
Affiliations

Seawater usable for production and consumption of hydrogen peroxide as a solar fuel

Kentaro Mase et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in water has been proposed as a promising solar fuel instead of gaseous hydrogen because of advantages on easy storage and high energy density, being used as a fuel of a one-compartment H2O2 fuel cell for producing electricity on demand with emitting only dioxygen (O2) and water. It is highly desired to utilize the most earth-abundant seawater instead of precious pure water for the practical use of H2O2 as a solar fuel. Here we have achieved efficient photocatalytic production of H2O2 from the most earth-abundant seawater instead of precious pure water and O2 in a two-compartment photoelectrochemical cell using WO3 as a photocatalyst for water oxidation and a cobalt complex supported on a glassy-carbon substrate for the selective two-electron reduction of O2. The concentration of H2O2 produced in seawater reached 48 mM, which was high enough to operate an H2O2 fuel cell.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Overall scheme of photocatalytic production of H2O2.
Photocatalytic production of H2O2 from water and O2 using m-WO3/FTO photoanode and CoII(Ch)/CP cathode in water or seawater under simulated 1 sun (AM 1.5G) illumination.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Photocatalytic production of H2O2 in the two-compartment photoelectrochemical cell.
Time courses of H2O2 production with m-WO3/FTO photoanode and CoII(Ch)/CP cathode in pH 1.3 water (red circle), in pH 1.3 seawater (blue circle) and in an NaCl aqueous solution (pH 1.3; blue square) under simulated 1 sun (AM 1.5G) illumination. Time course of H2O2 production in the absence of CoII(Ch) on carbon paper under simulated 1 sun (AM 1.5G) illumination in pH 1.3 water is shown as black circle.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Photoelectrochemical performance of m-WO3/FTO and electrochemical performance of CoII(Ch)/CP.
(a) I–V curves of m-WO3/FTO photoanode in pH 1.3 water (black solid) and in pH 1.3 seawater (red solid) under simulated 1 sun (AM 1.5G) illumination. I–V curves under dark are shown as dashed lines with the same colour definition. Sweep rate: 10 mV s−1. (b) Cyclic voltammograms of CoII(Ch)/CP in a N2-saturated pH 1.3 water (black solid) and an O2-saturated pH 1.3 water (red solid). The dashed lines show the cyclic voltammograms of CoII(Ch)/CP recorded in pH 1.3 seawater. Sweep rate: 20 mV s−1. (c) Cyclic voltammograms of CoII(Ch)/CP in O2-saturated pH 1.3 solutions (black) and I–V curves of m-WO3/FTO photoanode in pH 1.3 solutions (red) under simulated 1 sun (AM 1.5G) illumination.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Generation of electrical energy in the one-compartment H2O2 fuel cell.
I–V (blue) and I–P (red) curves of the one-compartment H2O2 fuel cell with a Ni mesh anode and FeII3[CoIII(CN)6]2/carbon cloth cathode in the reaction solution containing H2O2 (47.9 mM) produced by photocatalytic reaction in seawater as shown in Fig. 2 (blue circle).
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