Solar-induced direct biomass-to-electricity hybrid fuel cell using polyoxometalates as photocatalyst and charge carrier

Wei Liu, Wei Mu, Mengjie Liu, Xiaodan Zhang, Hongli Cai and Yulin Deng ()
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Wei Liu: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and IPST at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology
Wei Mu: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and IPST at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology
Mengjie Liu: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and IPST at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology
Xiaodan Zhang: School of Materials Science and Engineering and IPST at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hongli Cai: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and IPST at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology
Yulin Deng: School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and IPST at Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The current polymer-exchange membrane fuel cell technology cannot directly use biomass as fuel. Here we present a solar-induced hybrid fuel cell that is directly powered with natural polymeric biomasses, such as starch, cellulose, lignin, and even switchgrass and wood powders. The fuel cell uses polyoxometalates as the photocatalyst and charge carrier to generate electricity at low temperature. This solar-induced hybrid fuel cell combines some features of solar cells, fuel cells and redox flow batteries. The power density of the solar-induced hybrid fuel cell powered by cellulose reaches 0.72 mW cm−2, which is almost 100 times higher than cellulose-based microbial fuel cells and is close to that of the best microbial fuel cells reported in literature. Unlike most cell technologies that are sensitive to impurities, the cell reported in this study is inert to most organic and inorganic contaminants present in the fuels.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4208

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