Green hydrogen: ‘Artificial leaf’ becomes better under pressure

Findings can increase the efficiency of electrochemical and photocatalytic devices

02-Aug-2024 - Hydrogen can be produced via the electrolytic splitting of water. One option here is the use of photoelectrodes that convert sunlight into voltage for electrolysis in so called photoelectrochemical cells (PEC cells). A research team at HZB has now shown that the efficiency of PEC cells can be ...

Feeding plants with electricity

Electrochemists develop sustainable alternative to conventional fertilizer

05-Mar-2024 - While all living beings need nitrogen in order to survive, it is not so easy to absorb it. Plants, for example, can absorb it as salts of ammonia, which makes these salts a key component of fertilizers. Up to now, ammonia has mainly been produced on the basis of fossil resources and non-renewable ...

Green hydrogen from solar energy

Research team develops highly efficient solar cell enabling decentralized production of hydrogen

06-Oct-2023 - Researchers around the world are working on more efficient methods for producing hydrogen. Hydrogen could make a decisive contribution to reducing the consumption of fossil raw materials, especially if it is produced using renewable energies. Existing technologies for producing climate-neutral ...

A new way to capture and recycle carbon dioxide from industrial emissions

A new electrochemical cell could help industrial processes emit less carbon dioxide

07-Sep-2023 - Carbon capture is a promising method to help slow climate change. With this approach, carbon dioxide (CO­­2) is trapped before it escapes into the atmosphere, but the process requires a large amount of energy and equipment. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have designed a capture ...

Modular flow cells for sustainable chemistry

Optimization of electrochemical manufacturing processes

05-Sep-2023 - Electrochemical processes like water electrolysis will become increasingly important in the future in light of climate change and the resultant need for an energy and raw materials transition. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM is collaborating with hte GmbH to ...

Green hydrogen: How photoelectrochemical water splitting may become competitive

22-Mar-2023 - Sunlight can be used to produce green hydrogen directly from water in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells. So far, systems based on this "direct approach" have not been energetically competitive. However, the balance changes as soon as some of the hydrogen in such PEC cells is used in-situ for a ...

Bright, stable, and easy to recycle lighting

Low-cost blue and white light emitting electrochemical cells developed

11-May-2022 - A low-cost and easy-to-manufacture lighting technology can be made with light-emitting electrochemical cells. Such cells are thin-film electronic and ionic devices that generate light after a low voltage is applied. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of ...

Green hydrogen: buoyancy-driven convection in the electrolyte

For the first time investigated, how the liquid electrolyte throughout the cell behaves during electrolysis

23-Nov-2020 - Hydrogen produced by using solar energy could contribute to a climate neutral energy system of the future. But there are hurdles on the way from laboratory scale to large-scale implementation. A team at HZB has now presented a method to visualise convection in the electrolyte and to reliably ...

Anions Matter

Zinc-ion hybrid capacitors with ideal anions in the electrolyte show extra-long performance

18-Nov-2020 - Metal-ion hybrid capacitors combine the properties of capacitors and batteries. One electrode uses the capacitive mechanism, the other the battery-type redox processes. Scientists have now scrutinized the role of anions in the electrolyte. The results, which have been published in the journal ...

Efficient electrochemical cells for CO2 conversion

29-Oct-2018 - Scientists at Stanford University have developed electrochemical cells that convert carbon monoxide (CO) derived from CO2 into commercially viable compounds more effectively and efficiently than existing technologies. Their research provides a new strategy for capturing CO2 and converting it into ...