Solar Energy

New porous material promising for making renewable energy from water

Published

4 years ago

March 24, 2021

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New porous material promising for making renewable energy from water

One prospective source of renewable energy is hydrogen gas produced from water with the aid of sunlight. Researchers at Linkoping University, Sweden, have developed a material, nanoporous cubic silicon carbide, that exhibits promising properties to capture solar energy and split water for hydrogen gas production. The study has been published in the journal ACS Nano.

“”New sustainable energy systems are needed to meet global energy and environmental challenges, such as increasing carbon dioxide emissions and climate change”, says Jianwu Sun, senior lecturer in the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linkoping University, who has led the new study.

Hydrogen has an energy density three times that of petrol. It can be used to generate electricity using a fuel cell, and hydrogen-fuelled cars are already commercially available. When hydrogen gas is used to produce energy, the only product formed is pure water. In contrast, however, carbon dioxide is created when the hydrogen is produced, since the most commonly used technology used today depends on fossil fuels for the process. Thus, 9-12 tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted when 1 tonne of hydrogen gas is produced.

Producing hydrogen gas by splitting water molecules with the aid of solar energy is a sustainable approach that could give hydrogen gas using renewable sources without leading to carbon dioxide emissions. A major advantage of this method is the possibility to convert solar energy to fuel that can be stored.

“”Conventional solar cells produce energy during the daytime, and the energy must either be used immediately, or stored in, for example, batteries. Hydrogen is a promising source of energy that can be stored and transported in the same way as traditional fuels such as petrol and diesel”, says Jianwu Sun.

It is not, however, an easy task to split water using the energy in sunlight to give hydrogen gas. For this to succeed, it is necessary to find cost-efficient materials that have the right properties for the reaction in which water (H2O) is split into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) through photo-electrolysis. The energy in sunlight that can be used to split water is mostly in the form of ultraviolet radiation and visible light.

Therefore, a material is required that can efficiently absorb such radiation to create charges that can be separated and have enough energy to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Most materials that have been investigated until now are either inefficient in the way they use the energy of visible sunlight (titanium dioxide, TiO2, for example, absorbs only ultraviolet sunlight), or do not have the properties needed to split water to hydrogen gas (for instance, silicon, Si).

Jianwu Sun’s research group has investigated cubic silicon carbide, 3C-SiC. The scientists have produced a form of cubic silicon carbide that has many extremely small pores. The material, which they call nanoporous 3C-SiC, has promising properties that suggest it can be used to produce hydrogen gas from water using sunlight.

The present study has been published in the journal ACS Nano, and in it the researchers show that this new porous material can efficiently trap and harvest ultraviolet and most of the visible sunlight.

Furthermore, the porous structure promotes the separation of charges that have the required energy, while the small pores give a larger active surface area. This enhances charge transfer and increases the number of reaction sites, thus further boosting the water splitting efficiency.

“The main result we have shown is that nanoporous cubic silicon carbide has a higher charge-separation efficiency, which makes the splitting of water to hydrogen much better than when using planar silicon carbide”, says Jianwu Sun.

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Solar Energy

A single molecule elevates solar module output and stability

Published

5 hours ago

April 24, 2025

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A single molecule elevates solar module output and stability

by Sophie Jenkins

London, UK (SPX) Apr 24, 2025

A new molecule developed through international collaboration has been shown to significantly improve both the performance and durability of perovskite solar cells, according to a recent study published in *Science*. The discovery centers on a synthetic ionic salt named CPMAC, which originates from buckminsterfullerene (C60) and has been shown to outperform traditional C60 in solar applications.

Researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) played a key role in the development of CPMAC. While C60 has long been used in perovskite solar cells due to its favorable electronic properties, it suffers from stability issues caused by weak van der Waals interactions at the interface with the perovskite layer. CPMAC was engineered to address these shortcomings.

“For over a decade, C60 has been an integral component in the development of perovskite solar cells. However, weak interactions at the perovskite/C60 interface lead to mechanical degradation that compromises long-term solar cell stability. To address this limitation, we designed a C60-derived ionic salt, CPMAC, to significantly enhance the stability of the perovskite solar cells,” explained Professor Osman Bakr, Executive Faculty of the KAUST Center of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST).

Unlike C60, CPMAC forms ionic bonds with the perovskite material, strengthening the electron transfer layer and thereby enhancing both structural stability and energy output. Cells incorporating CPMAC demonstrated a 0.6% improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to those using C60.

Though the gain in efficiency appears modest, the impact scales up dramatically in real-world energy production. “When we deal with the scale of a typical power station, the additional electricity generated even from a fraction of a percentage point is quite significant,” said Hongwei Zhu, a research scientist at KAUST.

Beyond efficiency gains, CPMAC also enhanced device longevity. Under accelerated aging tests involving high heat and humidity over 2,000 hours, solar cells containing CPMAC retained a significantly higher portion of their efficiency. Specifically, their degradation was one third that observed in cells using conventional C60.

Further performance evaluation involved assembling the cells into four-cell modules, offering a closer approximation to commercial-scale solar panels. These tests reinforced the molecule’s advantage in both durability and output.

The key to CPMAC’s success lies in its capacity to reduce defects within the electron transfer layer, thanks to the formation of robust ionic bonds. This approach circumvents the limitations posed by van der Waals forces typical of unmodified C60 structures.

Research Report:C60-based ionic salt electron shuttle for high-performance inverted perovskite solar modules

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Solar Energy

Indonesia says China’s Huayou to replace LGES in EV battery project

Published

11 hours ago

April 24, 2025

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Indonesia says China’s Huayou to replace LGES in EV battery project

by AFP Staff Writers

Jakarta (AFP) April 23, 2025

China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt is replacing South Korea’s LG Energy Solution as a strategic investor in a multibillion-dollar project to build an electric vehicle battery joint venture in Indonesia, officials said on Wednesday.

The South Korean company, which was part of a consortium that signed a 142 trillion rupiah ($8.4 billion) “Grand Project” in 2020, announced its withdrawal from the project this week, citing factors including market conditions and the investment environment.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said LG Energy Solution’s decision would not significantly affect the project, which aims to establish a local electric vehicle battery value chain in Indonesia.

“Changes only occur at the investor level, where LG no longer continue its involvement… and has been replaced by a strategic partner from China, namely Huayou,” Bahlil said in a statement.

“Nothing has changed from the initial goal, namely making Indonesia as the center of the world’s electric vehicle industry.”

Indonesia, home to the world’s largest nickel reserve, has been seeking to position itself as a key player in the global electric vehicle supply chain by leveraging its vast reserve of the critical mineral to attract investments.

The government decided not to move forward with the South Korean company in the project due to the long negotiation process with the firm to realise its investment, Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani said.

Rosan cited Huayou’s familiarity with Indonesia as one of the reasons why the government chose the company to succeed LG Energy Solution.

“Huayou had invested in Indonesia,” Rosan said.

“They have sources to develop the industry going forward.”

LG Energy Solution said in a statement on Tuesday that it will continue to explore “various avenues of collaboration” with the Indonesian government, including in its battery joint venture.

HLI Green Power, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group, operates Indonesia’s first electric vehicle battery plant, which was launched in 2024 with a production capacity of up to 10 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of cells annually.

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Solar Energy

Politecnico di Milano explores global potential of agrivoltaics for land use harmony

Published

1 day ago

April 23, 2025

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Politecnico di Milano explores global potential of agrivoltaics for land use harmony

by Erica Marchand

Paris, France (SPX) Apr 23, 2025

A research team from the Politecnico di Milano has presented new insights into how agrivoltaic systems could resolve growing tensions over land use between agricultural production and solar energy development. Led by Maddalena Curioni, Nikolas Galli, Giampaolo Manzolini, and Maria Cristina Rulli, the study demonstrates that integrating photovoltaic panels with crop cultivation can significantly mitigate land-use conflict while maintaining food output.

Published in the journal Earth’s Future, the study highlights that between 13% and 16% of existing ground-mounted solar installations have displaced former farmland, underscoring the competition for arable land. In contrast, the researchers propose that deploying agrivoltaic systems on between 22% and 35% of non-irrigated agricultural land could enable dual use without substantially affecting crop yields.

Using a spatial agro-hydrological model, the researchers simulated how 22 crop types respond to varying degrees of solar shading from photovoltaic panels. Their simulations covered a broad range of climates and geographies, generating a global suitability map for agrivoltaic deployment. The results underscore the feasibility of this approach in many regions, especially those with compatible crops and moderate solar intensity.

“Agrivoltaics cannot be applied everywhere, but according to our results, it would be possible to combine cultivation and energy production in many areas of the world without significant reductions in yield,” said Nikolas Galli, researcher at the Glob3Science Lab and co-author of the study.

Giampaolo Manzolini, professor in the Department of Energy, noted additional benefits: “Using the land for both cultivation and photovoltaic systems increases overall output per occupied surface area while reducing production costs. In addition, installing crops underneath the photovoltaic panels reduces the panel operating temperature and increases their efficiency.”

“This technology could help reduce land competition while improving the sustainability of agricultural and energy systems,” added Maria Cristina Rulli, who coordinated the research.

The team emphasizes that their findings could inform strategic policy decisions and investment strategies aimed at maximizing land productivity while supporting both food security and renewable energy goals.

Research Report:Global Land-Water Competition and Synergy Between Solar Energy and Agriculture