Photoelectrochemical batteries for efficient energy recovery

Abstract

Herein we propose novel photoelectrochemical fuel cells (PEFCs) by the introduction of a solid-state Ag₂O/Ag cathode (here also term as photoelectrochemical battery). Due to the superior electrochemical properties of Ag₂O/Ag, the maximum power density of our PEFCs can reach 0.94 mW cm⁻² upon UV illumination. Furthermore, our PEFCs have stable cycle operation and can be undertaken in a single chamber without an ion-exchange membrane. Most importantly, we demonstrate that our PEFCs can be adopted to degrade the methyl orange (MO) dye with a decomposition percentage of 72.5% within 30 min during the PEFC process.