A fuel-producing solar cell? Researchers have created one by forming gallium phosphide into nanowires, producing not just a novel way to make fuel but boosting yield as well by 10 times.
In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers detailed how they were able to generate fuel from solar cells, essentially producing solar fuel that has massive potential to replace polluting fossil fuels. This is achieved by effectively splitting liquid water to extract hydrogen gas, a clean fuel that can has industrial applications.
Hooking up silicon solar cells to batteries have been shown to be effective in splitting water before but the process is expensive. Many scientists then turned to semiconductors to find a material that can both split water and change sunlight into an electrical charge. Researchers from the FOM Foundation and the Eindhoven University of Technology were able to successfully to do this with gallium phosphide.
A compound, gallium phosphide has excellent electrical properties. The only problem is that it is not capable of absorbing light effectively when in the form of a large flat surface, much like how it is used in solar cells. To beat this problem, the researchers created a grid using tiny nanowires of gallium phosphide measure 90 nanometers thick and 500 nanometers long.
By using nanowires, not only did the researchers create a way to properly utilize gallium phosphide as a solar fuel cell but they also required 10,000 less of the material compared to how much it would take to build a flat surface. Because less material is used, it makes producing the solar fuel cell drastically cheaper, explained Erik Bakkers, lead researcher for the study.
"In addition, [gallium phosphide] is also able to extract oxygen from the water—so you then actually have a fuel cell in which you can temporarily store your solar energy," he added.
With these results, the researchers are convinced that gallium phosphide deserves more attention as exploring the compound further will help in unlocking other applications it can be used in.
The study was carried out through the BioSolar Cells program, which receives funding support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the FOM Foundation.
Aside from Bakkers, Anthony Standing, Jos Haverkort, Simone Assali, Peter Notten, Marcel Verheijen, Yingchao Cui, Lu Gao and Dick van Dam also contributed to the study.
