Renewable formate from sunlight, biomass and carbon dioxide in a photoelectrochemical cell

Yuyang Pan, Huiyan Zhang (), Bowen Zhang, Feng Gong, Jianyong Feng, Huiting Huang, Srinivas Vanka, Ronglei Fan, Qi Cao, Mingrong Shen, Zhaosheng Li (), Zhigang Zou, Rui Xiao and Sheng Chu ()
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Yuyang Pan: Southeast University
Huiyan Zhang: Southeast University
Bowen Zhang: Southeast University
Feng Gong: Southeast University
Jianyong Feng: Nanjing University
Huiting Huang: Nanjing University
Srinivas Vanka: McGill University
Ronglei Fan: Soochow University
Qi Cao: Southeast University
Mingrong Shen: Soochow University
Zhaosheng Li: Nanjing University
Zhigang Zou: Nanjing University
Rui Xiao: Southeast University
Sheng Chu: Southeast University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The sustainable production of chemicals and fuels from abundant solar energy and renewable carbon sources provides a promising route to reduce climate-changing CO2 emissions and our dependence on fossil resources. Here, we demonstrate solar-powered formate production from readily available biomass wastes and CO2 feedstocks via photoelectrochemistry. Non-precious NiOOH/α-Fe2O3 and Bi/GaN/Si wafer were used as photoanode and photocathode, respectively. Concurrent photoanodic biomass oxidation and photocathodic CO2 reduction towards formate with high Faradaic efficiencies over 85% were achieved at both photoelectrodes. The integrated biomass-CO2 photoelectrolysis system reduces the cell voltage by 32% due to the thermodynamically favorable biomass oxidation over conventional water oxidation. Moreover, we show solar-driven formate production with a record-high yield of 23.3 μmol cm−2 h−1 as well as high robustness using the hybrid photoelectrode system. The present work opens opportunities for sustainable chemical and fuel production using abundant and renewable resources on earth—sunlight, biomass and CO2.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36726-3

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