Membrane-bound photoelectrochemical production of fuels from sunlight

In this talk, we will discuss the use of microrod arrays embedded a polymeric membrane, along with suitable heterogeneous catalysts, to produce fuels from sunlight. Fuels include production of hydrogen and reduction of carbon dioxide, as well as evolution of dioxygen from water. The strategy exploits the beneficial features of arrays of microrods of semiconductor photoelectrodes, which allows for the use of impure, low minority carrier diffusion length materials while still providing effective carrier collection and enabling the use of relative modest activity catalysts for the fuel-forming reactions of concern.