Toward a Low‐Cost Artificial Leaf: Driving Carbon‐Based and Bifunctional Catalyst Electrodes with Solution‐Processed Perovskite Photovoltaics

Molecular hydrogen can be generated renewably by water splitting with an “artificial‐leaf device”, which essentially comprises two electrocatalyst electrodes immersed in water and powered by photovoltaics. Ideally, this device should operate efficiently and be fabricated with cost‐efficient means using earth‐abundant materials. Here, a lightweight electrocatalyst electrode, comprising large surface‐area NiCo 2 O 4 nanorods that are firmly anchored onto a carbon–paper current collector via a dense network of nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotubes is presented. This electrocatalyst electrode is bifunctional in that it can efficiently operate as both anode and cathode in the same alkaline solution, as quantified by a…

• S
  Strong
• KF
  Kempe Foundation
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet

  Awards: dnr 2013‐5252, 2013-5252
• E
  Energimyndigheten

  Award: 36648-1
• UU
  Umeå Universitet
• K
  Kempestiftelserna
• CF
  Center for Exercise Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham