TY - JOUR
T1 - Spontaneous Solar Syngas Production from CO2 Driven by Energetically Favorable Wastewater Microbial Anodes
AU - Lu, Lu
AU - Li, Zhida
AU - Chen, Xi
AU - Wang, Huan
AU - Dai, Sheng
AU - Pan, Xiaoqing
AU - Ren, Zhiyong Jason
AU - Gu, Jing
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/10/14
Y1 - 2020/10/14
N2 - The photoelectrochemical (PEC) reduction of CO2 to syngas is an attractive strategy for solar-to-fuel conversion. However, the high overpotential, inadequate selectivity, and high cost demand for alternative solutions. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid microbial photoelectrochemical (MPEC) system that contains a microbial anode capable of oxidizing waste organics in wastewater and reducing the oxidation potential by 1.1 V compared with abiotic water oxidation using a PEC anode. Moreover, the MPEC employs a power management circuit (PMC) to enable parallel low-energy-producing reactions operated in the same solution medium to conquer high-overpotential reactions. The nanowire silicon photocathode integrated with a selective single-atom nickel catalyst (Si NW/Ni SA) achieved up to ∼80% faradic efficiency for CO generation with a highly tunable CO:H2 generation ratio (0.1 to 6.8). When the bioanode was coupled with the Si NW/Ni SA, up to 1.1 mA cm−2 of spontaneous photocurrent density was obtained for high-rate syngas generation.
AB - The photoelectrochemical (PEC) reduction of CO2 to syngas is an attractive strategy for solar-to-fuel conversion. However, the high overpotential, inadequate selectivity, and high cost demand for alternative solutions. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid microbial photoelectrochemical (MPEC) system that contains a microbial anode capable of oxidizing waste organics in wastewater and reducing the oxidation potential by 1.1 V compared with abiotic water oxidation using a PEC anode. Moreover, the MPEC employs a power management circuit (PMC) to enable parallel low-energy-producing reactions operated in the same solution medium to conquer high-overpotential reactions. The nanowire silicon photocathode integrated with a selective single-atom nickel catalyst (Si NW/Ni SA) achieved up to ∼80% faradic efficiency for CO generation with a highly tunable CO:H2 generation ratio (0.1 to 6.8). When the bioanode was coupled with the Si NW/Ni SA, up to 1.1 mA cm−2 of spontaneous photocurrent density was obtained for high-rate syngas generation.
KW - microbial electrochemical oxidation
KW - microbial photoelectrochemical CO reduction
KW - self-sustaining system
KW - solar energy conversion
KW - syngas generation
KW - wastewater treatment
KW - water, energy, and carbon nexus
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092143310&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.joule.2020.08.014
DO - 10.1016/j.joule.2020.08.014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092143310
SN - 2542-4351
VL - 4
SP - 2149
EP - 2161
JO - Joule
JF - Joule
IS - 10
ER -