Australia: Researchers set new efficiency record for solar hydrogen production

Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have set a new efficiency record for a cell that can convert water directly into hydrogen simply using sunlight.

The unique approach outlined in the ANU study also uses cheap semiconductor materials and achieves a 17.6 per cent efficiency in converting solar energy into hydrogen.

That’s close to the efficiency of rooftop solar panels, which are around 20 percent efficient.

Lead author Dr Siva Karuturi said hydrogen has an important role to play in addressing the intermittent nature of renewable energy.

“这种太阳能制氢的方法有显著的成本效益，因为它不需要额外的基础设施，而不像使用电解槽来制氢。”

Previous methods of converting water to hydrogen have had low overall conversion efficiencies, but Karuturi's research has improved this.

"In the past, to produce hydrogen, solar plants had to generate electricity first and then use that electricity to produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water. Our new method is more direct and more efficient," he said.

Karuturi said they are working to reach 20% efficiency in the coming months, which would pave the way for low-cost green hydrogen production.

The research team used a "tandem" light-absorbing structure - placing the perovskite cell on a specially made silicon electrode.

研究钙钛矿电池的合著者沈和平(音译)博士说，钙钛矿材料具有非凡的光电特性，为制造低成本、高效率的硅串联器件提供了巨大的潜力。

沈说：“伴随着前所未有的效率进步，钙钛矿材料的稳定性也得到了显著改善，使其成为太阳能行业最有吸引力的候选者之一。”

The new method makes use of precious metal catalysts such as platinum, and Karuturi said they are working to replace them with cheaper materials to further reduce costs in the future.