• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.110-115
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• 2024

Global sustainable energy needs and carbon neutrality goals make hydrogen a key future energy source. South Korea and Japan lead with proactive hydrogen policies, including South Korea's Hydrogen Law and Japan's strategy updates aiming for a hydrogen-centric society by 2050. A notable advance is the solar thermal chemical water-splitting cycle for green hydrogen production, spotlighted by Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Niigata University's joint initiative. This method uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, offering a carbon-neutral hydrogen production route. The study focuses on international collaboration in solar energy for thermochemical water-splitting and E-fuel production, highlighting breakthroughs in catalyst and reactor design to enhance solar thermal technology's commercial viability for sustainable fuel production. Collaborations, like ARENA in Australia, target global carbon emission reduction and energy system sustainability, contributing to a cleaner, sustainable energy future.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.15 no.2 s.46
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• pp.96-106
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• 2006

Among several different hydrogen production technologies, solar hydrogen system for water splitting is the only clean and sustainable energy supplier. Hydrogen production by water-splitting utilizing solar energy has attracted considerable interest since the pioneering work of Honda and Fujishima in 1979, who discovered that water can be photo-electrochemically decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen using a semiconductor ($TiO_2$) electrode under UV irradiation. Most efforts to utilize solar ray lead to explore visible responding photocatalysts, PEC cells and other fusion technology like bio-photocatalytic conversion. In this paper, photon utilization technologies for water splitting have been briefly reviewed except solar thermal utilization technology.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 2013

Researches on developing photocatalyst materials for hydrogen production from solar water splitting attract great attentions due to the unlimited and clean characteristics of the solar energy. In this review, photocatalysts used for hydrogen production from the solar water splitting are discussed in terms of material characteristics. In addition, various modification techniques applied to the photocatalysts for improving hydrogen production efficiency are summarized. Finally, light characteristics such as intensity, illumination density and wavelength cutoff are also discussed for the importance of hydrogen production rate.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.61-64
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• 2018

The basic principle and concept for hydrogen production via water-splitting process are introduced. In particular, recent research activities and their progress in the photoelectrochemical water-splitting process are investigated. The material perspectives of semiconducting photocatalysts are considered from metal oxides, including titanium oxides, to carbon compounds and perovskites. Various structural configurations, from conventional photoanodes with metal cathodes to tandem and nanostructures, are also studied. The pros and cons of each are described in terms of light absorption, charge separation/photoexcited electron-hole pair recombinations and further solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. In this research, we attempt to provide a broad view of up-to-date research and development as well as, possibly, future directions in the photoelectrochemical water-splitting field.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.495-498
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• 2008

Photocatalytic water splitting into $H_2$ and $O_2$ using semiconductors has received much attention, especially for its potential application to direct production of $H_2$ for clean energy from water utilizing solar light energy. Since the report of Fujishima and Honda on the water splitting by photoelectrochemical cells, numerous different semiconducting materials have been used as photocatalysts for hydrogen generation from water. Among them, platinized titania significantly accelerates hydrogen production from water. For geometrical improvement of $TiO_2$ particle, porous $TiO_2$ structure was proposed and studied such as nanofiber, nanorod and nototubes. This research focuses on finding out the optimum temperature and electrolyte to produce $H_2$ by solar water splitting.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2007

Solar energy conversion to hydrogen was carried out via a two-step thermochemical water splitting using metal oxide redox pair. To simulate the solar radiation, a 7 kW short arc Xe-lamp was used. Partially reduced iron oxide and cerium oxide have the water splitting ability, respectively. So, $Fe_3O_4$ supported on $CeO_2$ was selected as the active material. $Fe_3O_4/CeO_2$(20 wt/80 wt%) was prepared by impregnation method, then the active material was washcoated on the ceramic honeycomb monolith made of mullite and cordierite. Oxygen was released at the reduction step($1673{\sim}1823\;K$) and hydrogen was produced from water at lower temperature($873{\sim}1273\;K$). The result demonstrate the possibility of the 2-step thermochemical water splitting hydrogen production by the active material washcoated monolith. And hydrogen and oxygen was produced separately without any separation process in a monolith installed reactor. But the SEM and EDX analysis results revealed that the support used in this experiment is not suitable due to the thermal instability and coating material migration.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2017

In this review, I have summarized the solar water splitting research based on the organic metal halide perovskite material, which has recently been spotlighted worldwide. Significantly, to date, recent reports have been categorized as photovoltaic-electrolyzer configuration and integrated photoelectrolysis. Research in this field is still in its early stages, and it is necessary to develop an effective protection film and manufacture a high-voltage tandem cell in the future.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.82-85
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• 2015

Photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) is one of the attractive ways to produce clean and renewable energy. However, solar to hydrogen production via PEC system generally requires high external bias, because of material's innate electronic band potential relative to hydrogen reduction potential and/or charge separation issue. For spontaneous photo-water splitting, here, we design dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and their monolithic tandem cell incorporated with a $BiVO_4$ photoanode. $BiVO_4$ has high conduction band edge potential and suitable band gap (2.4eV) to absorb visible light. To achieve efficient $BiVO_4$ photoanode system, electron and hole mobility should be improved, and we demonstrate a tandem cell in which $BiVO_4/WO_3$ film is connected to cobalt complex based DSSC.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2016

The production of oxygen and hydrogen from solar water splitting has been considered to be an ultimate solution for energy and environmental issues, and over the past few years, nano-sized semiconducting metal oxides alone and with graphene have been shown to have great promise for use in photocatalytic water splitting. It is challenging to find ideal materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting, and these have limited commercial applicability due to critical factors, including their physico-chemical properties, the rate of charge-carrier recombination and limited light absorption. This review article discusses these main features, and recent research progress and major factors affect the performance of the water splitting reaction. The mechanism behind these interactions in transition metal oxides and graphene based nano-structured semiconductors upon illumination has been discussed in detail, and such characteristics are relevant to the design of materials with a superior photocatalytic response towards UV and visible light.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2021

GaN has shown good potential owing to its better chemical stability than other materials and tunable bandgap with materials such as InN and AlN. Tunable bandgap allows GaN to make the maximum utilization of the solar spectrum, thus improves the solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency. In addition, GaN band gap contains the oxidation and reduction level of water, so it can split water without external voltage. However, STH efficiency using GaN itself is low and has been actively studied recently to improve it. In this thesis, we have summarized the studies related to the use of GaN as a photoelectrode for photoelectrochemical water splitting.