Hybrid photoelectrochemical-rechargeable seawater battery for efficienct solar energy storage systems > Publication | UNIST YK RESEARCH

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Publication

Hybrid photoelectrochemical-rechargeable seawater battery for efficienct solar energy storage systems
Author
Jinhyup Han, Sangwoo Lee, Chulmin Youn, Jinho Lee, Youngsik Kim, Taekjib Choi
Journal
Electrochimica Acta
Vol
332
Page
135443
Year
2020
Eco-friendly harnessing of both ocean chemical energy and solar energy would represent a sustainable solution for future energy conversion/storage systems, but it has been challenging to enhance the energy efficiency of such systems for practical applications. Here, we demonstrate an efficient photoelectrochemical-assisted rechargeable seawater battery. By integrating TiO2 nanostructure-based photoelectrodes with the seawater battery, we achieved significant enhancement of the voltage efficiency during the charging/discharging processes; effective photocharging with the TiO2 photoanode reduced the charging voltage to ∼2.65 V, while the heated carbon felt (HCF) cathode in the seawater battery exhibited charging/discharging voltages of ∼3.8 V and ∼2.9 V, respectively. Such a charging voltage reduction led to a voltage efficiency of ∼109%. Moreover, interestingly, we found that TiO2 nanostructures showed excellent photoelectrochemical performances in seawater in association with the efficient photocharging. As a result, the utilization of TiO2 nanostructures as photocharging/discharging electrodes provides a feasible strategy to optimize the cell configuration for highly efficient solar seawater batteries.