Affiliation:
1. CAS Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures and Fujian Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter Chinese Academy of Sciences Fuzhou 350002 China
2. Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy Dalian 116023 China
Abstract
AbstractNatural photosynthesis (NP) generates oxygen and carbohydrates from water and CO2utilizing solar energy to nourish lives and balance CO2levels. Following nature, artificial photosynthesis (AP), typically, overall water or CO2splitting, produces fuels and chemicals from renewable energy. However, hydrogen evolution or CO2reduction is inherently coupled with kinetically sluggish water oxidation, lowering efficiencies and raising safety concerns. Decoupled systems have thus emerged. In this review, we elaborate how decoupled artificial photosynthesis (DAP) evolves from NP and AP and unveil their distinct photoelectrochemical mechanisms in energy capture, transduction and conversion. Advances of AP and DAP are summarized in terms of photochemical (PC), photoelectrochemical (PEC), and photovoltaic‐electrochemical (PV‐EC) catalysis based on material and device design. The energy transduction process of DAP is emphasized. Challenges and perspectives on future researches are also presented.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Key Research Program of Frontier Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences