Layer-by-Layer Assembled Photoelectrochemical Devices for Solar-to-Chemical Conversion

Abstract

Efficient harvesting and utilization of unlimited solar energy to produce valuable chemicals, the so-called artificial photosynthesis, has been a holy grail of scientists and engineers to solve modern energy and environmental problems. In principle, we can produce various fine chemicals including chemical fuels through a series of photoelectrochemical processes by rational design of photocatalytic systems. Despite numerous efforts made for decades, its practical application is limited by low efficiency and stability of photosynthetic devices. Considering the diversity and excellent properties of functional components developed to date, the limitation may be partly due to the absence of a general and simple method to precisely assemble them in various combinations without altering their properties to build an integrated photosynthetic device. To solve this problem, we have studied to develop a simple modular platform to fabricate various photoelectrochemical devices using the huge library of functional components reported to date. For example, we found that layer-by-layer assembly technique can serve as a versatile and promising method to build and engineer various photoelectrodes for solar water oxidation. In this talk, I will present our progress over the past few years in the development of the modular photosynthetic devices and discuss the potential and limitations.