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Updated: Jan 21, 2026

Experimental Methods for Efficient Solar Hydrogen Production in Microgravity Environment
Published on: December 3, 2019
A Value-Added Solar-Mediated Rechargeable Battery Integrating Efficient Photoelectrochemical Energy Storage with
Fan Yang1, Yi Lin2, Xiaoqi Gong1
1Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of High-Performance Polymer-Based Composites of Guangdong Province, GBRCE for Functional Molecular Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
Abstract:
Developing sustainable functional batteries capable of generating valuable chemicals during electricity storage/release represents challenging frontiers. Here, we present a new battery chemistry that enables the first value-added solar-mediated rechargeable seawater battery integrating photoelectrochemical energy storage with sunlight-boosted self-powered H2O2 production from seawater without external power/O2 supply. This system is enabled by rationally-designed bifunctional S-scheme heterojunction photocathodes (MP-COP@TiO2) comprising A3-(D-core) polymer (MP-COP) encapsulated TiO2. A3-(D-core) topology induces favorable electronic modulation that optimizes oxygen specie adsorption and steering oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) toward one-step 2e- pathway-while facilitating electronic coupling with oxygen evolution reaction (OER)-active TiO2 to establish S-scheme charge transfer mechanism alongside strengthened built-in electric field. These endow MP-COP@TiO2 with sunlight-boosted 4e- OER for in situ O2-generation during photo-charge and 2e- ORR for on-site H2O2 synthesis during photo-discharge, establishing solar-mediated self-sustaining value-added reaction cycles. Integrating MP-COP@TiO2 with sodium anodes and seawater creates previously-unexplored functional battery, yielding remarkable H2O2 yield of 5.47 mmol g-1 h-1 during photo-discharge-9.4 times those in dark and exceeding most reported seawater systems while delivering near-zero charge/discharge voltage gap under illumination. Mechanistic studies reveal promoting effect of A3-(D-core) modulation and its synergistic role with S-scheme charge transfer that promotes Yeager-type O2 adsorption and facilitates one-step 2e- ORR toward H2O2.
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