Applications of metal oxide materials in dye sensitized photoelectrosynthesis cells for making solar fuels: let the molecules do the work

Abstract

Solar fuels hold great promise as a permanent, environmentally friendly, long-term renewable energy source, that would be readily available across the globe. In this account, an approach to solar fuels is described based on Dye Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cells (DSPEC) that mimic the configuration used in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC), but with the goal of producing oxygen and a high energy solar fuel in the separate compartments of a photoelectrochemical cell rather than a photopotential and photocurrent.