Premium
Harvesting Hydrogen Gas from Air Pollutants with an Unbiased Gas Phase Photoelectrochemical Cell
Author(s) -
Verbruggen Sammy W.,
Van Hal Myrthe,
Bosserez Tom,
Rongé Jan,
Hauchecorne Birger,
Martens Johan A.,
Lenaerts Silvia
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201601806
Subject(s) - environmental remediation , pollutant , hydrogen , gas phase , pollution , inert gas , oxygen , environmental science , chemistry , environmental chemistry , contamination , organic chemistry , ecology , biology
Abstract The concept of an all‐gas‐phase photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell producing hydrogen gas from volatile organic contaminated gas and light is presented. Without applying any external bias, organic contaminants are degraded and hydrogen gas is produced in separate electrode compartments. The system works most efficiently with organic pollutants in inert carrier gas. In the presence of oxygen, the cell performs less efficiently but still significant photocurrents are generated, showing the cell can be run on organic contaminated air. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate new application opportunities of PEC technology and to encourage further advancement toward PEC remediation of air pollution with the attractive feature of simultaneous energy recovery and pollution abatement.