PECALO

Artificial photosynthesis is a key research field, because it will have a huge beneficial impact on a future post-carbon energy area. In this project, we propose to develop, for the first time, a stable tandem photoelectrochemical cell to reduce CO2 to CO with concomitant oxidation of alcohols in aldehydes, thereby providing a strategy for generating economically valuable products at both electrodes with sunlight. At the end of the project, the cell will have a high solar to chemical energy efficiency (3%) with an outstanding stability (100 h). This ambitious objective will be attained thanks to the combination of highly active CO2 reduction molecular catalysts, nitroxide based alcohol oxidation catalysts, the use of very efficient copper chalcogenide and amorphous silicon semiconductors as photoelectrode absorbers and a new cross-linking strategy to stabilize the catalysts on the electrode. The project gathers four recognized teams with specialists in six major areas.