All-vanadium redox photoelectrochemical cell: An approach to store solar energy

Abstract A highly-efficient all-vanadium photoelectrochemical storage cell has been demonstrated in this work. This storage cell takes advantage of fast electrochemical kinetics of vanadium redox couples of VO 2 + /VO 2 + and V 3 + /V 2 + , and appears as a promising alternative to photoproduction of hydrogen from water. Continuous photocharging for 25 h revealed a VO 2 + conversion rate of 0.0042 μmol/h and Faradaic efficiency of 95% without external voltage bias. The incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) at 350 nm light was calculated to be ~ 12%.

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