Photoelectrochemical cell, system and process for light-driven production of hydrogen and oxygen with a photoelectrochemical cell, and process for producing the photoelectrochemical cell

Abstract

The invention relates to a photoelectrochemical cell 100 for light-driven production of hydrogen and oxygen, especially from water or another electrolyte based on aqueous solution, having a photoelectric layer structure 1 and an electrochemical layer structure 2 in a layer construction 40, where - the photoelectric layer structure 1 for absorption of light 3 uninfluenced by the electrolyte 10 forms a front side 41 of the layer structure 40, and - the electrochemical layer structure 2, for accommodation of the electrolyte 10, forms a reverse side 42 of the layer construction 40, and - a conductive and corrosion-inhibiting coupling layer 13 forms electrical contact between the photoelectric layer structure 1 and the electrochemical layer structure 2 in the layer construction 40, where - the electrochemical layer structure 2 has an electrode structure of a front electrode 21 and an electrode structure of a rear electrode 22, between which is arranged an ion exchange layer 61 such that an integrated layer construction 40 is formed with the ion exchange layer 61 in contact with the electrode structure of the front electrode 21 formed for conversion of the electrolyte 10 and / or with the electrode structure of the rear electrode 22.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to photoelectrochemical cells for the generation of hydrogen and oxygen, inter alia, from water or other aqueous-based electrolytes. The invention also relates to a system with a large number of such photoelectrochemical cells having at least one first and second cell. The present invention also relates to methods for the light-driven generation of hydrogen and oxygen with photoelectrochemical cells, especially from water or other aqueous-based electrolytes. The invention also relates to methods for the manufacture of photoelectrochemical cells. Background technique [0002] The production of hydrogen is usually carried out on a large scale by a process of steam reforming, in which hydrogen is produced in two process steps from hydrocarbons such as natural gas, oil, biomass, etc. The costs for this process are relatively high and are strongly coupled to general energy prices. In addition, the climate-harmful gas CO is f...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

All hitherto known systems expose the electrochemical cell and the photovoltaic cell to a mostly acidic electrolyte which in any case leads to not insignificant stability problems for the photovoltaic cell

It has also been shown that the mentioned coupling between the solid-state photovoltaic cell and the partially liquid electrolyte of the electrochemical cell is difficult; this results in a high resistance at least at the input of the electrochemical cell, which clearly degrades the entire photoelectrochemical The efficiency of the battery drops below 10%

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