Efficient Biomass Fuel Cell Powered by Sugar with Photo‐ and Thermal‐Catalysis by Solar Irradiation

The utilization of biomass sugars has received great interesting recently. Herein, we present a highly efficient hybrid solar biomass fuel cell that utilizes thermal‐ and photocatalysis of solar irradiation and converts biomass sugars into electricity with high power output. The fuel cell uses polyo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ChemSusChem 2018-07, Vol.11 (13), p.2229-2238
Main Authors: Liu, Wei, Gong, Yutao, Wu, Weibing, Yang, Weisheng, Liu, Congmin, Deng, Yulin, Chao, Zi‐sheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass
Biomass energy
Catalysis
Current carriers
Electricity
Electrons
Fuel cells
hybrid fuel cell
Infrared radiation
Irradiation
Oxidation
Photocatalysis
polyoxometalates
Polyoxometallates
Sugar
thermal conversion
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Summary:The utilization of biomass sugars has received great interesting recently. Herein, we present a highly efficient hybrid solar biomass fuel cell that utilizes thermal‐ and photocatalysis of solar irradiation and converts biomass sugars into electricity with high power output. The fuel cell uses polyoxometalates (POMs) as photocatalyst to decompose sugars and capture their electrons. The reduced POMs have strong visible and near‐infrared light adsorption, which can significantly increase the temperature of the reaction system and largely promotes the thermal oxidation of sugars by the POM. In addition, the reduced POM functions as charge carrier that can release electrons at the anode in the fuel cell to generate electricity. The electron‐transfer rates from glucose to POM under thermal and light‐irradiation conditions were investigated in detail. The power outputs of this solar biomass fuel cell are investigated by using different types of sugars as fuels, with the highest power density reaching 45 mW cm−2. Hybrid solar biomass fuel cell: A solar and biomass hybrid fuel cell that combines thermal and photocatalytic effects of solar irradiation highly efficiently generates electricity from biomass sugars. The ability of the reduced polyoxometalates (POMs) in the fuel cell to absorb light increases the temperature of the reaction system, which promotes thermal oxidation of sugars; in addition, the reduced POM acts as charge carrier that releases electrons at the anode (POM‐I=H3[PMo12O40], POM‐II=H12P3Mo18V7O85).
ISSN:1864-5631
1864-564X
DOI:10.1002/cssc.201800719