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AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsShane Ardo, Samuel Thomas Keene, Gabriel S. Phun
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Photochemical energy conversion is more efficient when a single light-absorbing unit is split into multiple light-absorbing units (N) that are each 1/N as thick as the single light-absorbing unit and thus use the same amount of material as the single light-absorbing unit. For electrocatalytic parameters relevant to water electrolysis, the maximum efficiency for solar-to-fuel conversion from a 1.75 eV bandgap material increases from approximately 1% for a single light-absorbing unit to greater than 20% for 128 identical stacked light-absorbing units. Alterations in utilization of photons results in a better match of the light-absorber power output to the load of the chemical transformation and in the case of high-quality light-absorbers there is an added benefit from radiative coupling between the light-absorbing units via photon recycling.
A light-driven system (100) for a desalination process, comprising a plurality of light-absorbing units (110) arranged in a stacked array, wherein the light-absorbing units (110) have near-optimal bandgaps, wherein each light-absorbing unit (110) operates independently and in parallel to net drive a thermodynamically unfavorable chemical transformation of desalination, thereby increasing an overall efficiency, rate, or amount of desalinated water formed as compared to a single light-absorbing unit having a same amount of light-absorbing ability or material as the plurality of light-absorbing units (110).
A light-driven system (100) for water electrolysis or other pairs of electrochemical redox reactions, comprising a plurality of light-absorbing units (110) arranged in a stacked array, wherein the light-absorbing units (110) have near-optimal bandgaps, wherein each light-absorbing unit (110) operates independently and in parallel to net drive a thermodynamically unfavorable chemical transformation of water electrolysis, thereby increasing a solar-to-fuel efficiency as compared to a single light-absorbing unit having a same amount of light-absorbing ability or material as the plurality of light-absorbing units (110).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.