As an alternative to the photoelectrochemical water splitting for use in the fuel cells used to generate electrical power, this study set out to develop a solar energy rechargeable battery system based on photoelectrochemical water oxidation. We refer to this design as a "solar water battery". The solar water battery integrates a photoelectrochemical cell and battery into a single device. It us...

Thermochemical multistep waterand CO2-splitting processes are promising options to face future energy problems. Particularly, the possible incorporation of solar power makes these processes sustainable and environmentally attractive since only water, CO2 and solar power are used; the concentrated solar energy is converted into storable and transportable fuels. One of the major barriers to techn...

Renewable hydrogen production is a sustainable method for the development of next-generation energy technologies. Utilising solar energy and photocatalysts to split water is an ideal method to produce hydrogen. In this review, the fundamental principles and recent progress of hydrogen production by artificial photosynthesis are reviewed, focusing on hydrogen production from photocatalytic water...

Photocatalytic water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen is a method to directly convert light energy into storable chemical energy, and has received considerable attention for use in large-scale solar energy utilization. Particulate semiconductors are generally used as photocatalysts, and semiconductor properties such as bandgap, band positions, and photocarrier mobility can heavily impact phot...

n this special issue, three papers belong to the path 1 , six papers o the path 2 , and two papers to the path 3 . The thermal path to generate electricity is referred as “concenrated solar power” or CSP. The greatly insolated “sunbelt” reions of the world include large Asian regions in China and India s well as the southwestern United States, southern Europe, Ausralia, the MENA regions, etc. T...

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, which is a type of artificial photosynthesis, is a sustainable way of converting solar energy into chemical energy. The water oxidation half-reaction has always represented the bottleneck of this process because of the thermodynamic and kinetic challenges that are involved. Several materials have been explored and studied to address the issues pertain...

Abstract Spontaneous noble metal dopant segregation in an oxide lattice can lead to the formation of metallic clusters and extended acicular inclusions. In a thin-film process, shape orientation such inclusions are governed by crystal growth direction, giving rise composite material with lattice-matched nanopillars embedded vertically insulating or semiconducting matrix. An interesting applicat...

The recently synthesized freestanding four-atom-thick double-layer sheet of ZnSe holds great promise as an ultraflexible and transparent photoelectrode material for solar water splitting. In this work, we report theoretical studies on a novel three-atom-thick single-layer sheet of ZnSe that demonstrates a strong quantum confinement effect by exhibiting a large enhancement of the band gap (2.0 e...