فوتون برای تشکیل: تبدیل انرژی خورشیدی الکتروشیمیایی کارآمد از طریق کاهش دی اکسید کربن

The storage of solar energy as formic acid generated electrochemically from carbon dioxide has been identified as a viable solar fuel pathway. We report that this transformation can be accomplished by separating light absorption and CO2 reduction through the use of a commercial solar panel illuminated with natural AM1.5 sunlight to power a custom closed-loop electrochemical flow cell stack. Faradaic yields for formate of up to 67% have been demonstrated in this system, yielding a solar energy to fuel thermionic conversion efficiency above 1.8%.