Munich researchers are developing processes to generate synthesis gas or charge batteries using sunlight.
"There are two ways to use solar energy directly," summarizes Dr. Julien Warnan, postdoctoral researcher and group leader in photocatalysis at the Technical University of Munich (TUM):. "We either get electrical energy from it, or we use the energy to drive chemical reactions. With two systems based on the same principle, we have succeeded experimentally in both."
As a result, the researchers can now produce synthesis gas using sunlight. Synthesis gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that is currently produced almost exclusively with the help of fossil raw materials, says Professor Roland Fischer from the Chair of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry at TUM. It is an important intermediate for the production of many chemical feedstocks such as ammonia, methanol and synthetic hydrocarbon fuels, he said.
Researchers at TUM have now developed a nanomaterial ("nanozyme") that mimics the properties of the enzymes involved in photosynthesis. It looks like yellowish powder and is designed to produce synthesis gas from carbon dioxide, water and light. It has succeeded, says Dr. Philip Stanley, who worked on the topic as part of his doctoral dissertation. "Our energy yield from light is spectacularly high, at 36 percent. We can convert up to every third photon, or light particle, into chemical energy. Previous systems were at most in the range of every tenth particle here. This result gives hope that technical implementation could make industrial chemical processes more sustainable."
In another project, TUM researchers are working on a material that can directly store electrical energy from the sun. "One possible future application could be batteries that are charged by sunlight, without the detour via the power socket," explains Professor Roland Fischer.
In developing these so-called photocapacitors, the researchers use similar building blocks to those used in the nanozyme. Here, too, the material itself absorbs photons from the irradiated light. But instead of subsequently serving as a catalyst for a chemical reaction, the energy receiver is so tightly integrated into the structure that it remains in this state, enabling long-term storage of electrons. The researchers proved the feasibility of the system in the laboratory, according to a TUM statement.
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