EES Blog

Thomas Jaramillo and co-workers developed of a very sensitive experiment to identify and quantify CO₂ electroreduction products. Their results, presented in their recent EES article, provide a comprehensive view of the reaction chemistry.

A recent C&EN article discusses the work of Jaramillo’s group. The C&EN article focuses on recent developments towards the interesting goal of converting CO₂ into useful products using electrochemistry: “Carbon dioxide gets a lot of attention—most of it negative—as a greenhouse gas. But if CO₂ could be converted in a cost-effective manner to valuable products, the ubiquitous small molecule so often reviled for its role in climate change might start to lose its bad rap.”

Read more in the C&EN article here…

…and read the article in EES:

New insights into the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on metallic copper surfaces
Kendra P. Kuhl, Etosha R. Cave, David N. Abram and Thomas F. Jaramillo
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE21234J

Scientists from the US have derived a metric to analyse the cost of power generation using thermoelectric technology. The metric shows that thermoelectric devices have greater potential in large-scale power generation than previously thought.

Thermoelectric generators convert heat into electricity by a physical phenomenon called the Seebeck effect. They are compact, robust, and have no moving parts. This means they are useful for low-maintenance applications, such as in spacecrafts. However, their device efficiencies – the power produced for a certain heat flow – are low, so they are not used for large-scale power generation.

Thermoelectric research has typically focussed on the dimensionless figure-of-merit ZT, a metric that relates directly to device efficiency. Shannon Yee from the University of California Berkeley, part of the team that performed the analysis, explains that for power generation to be commercially viable, what really matters is a technology’s capital cost per watt and not just its device efficiency: ‘we found that the design that minimises a system’s cost per watt value is generally very different to the design that maximises efficiency.’

Interested to know more? Read the full news article in Chemistry World here…

Read the article by Yee, Dames et al. in EES:

$/W Metrics for Thermoelectric Power Generation: Beyond ZT
Shannon K Yee, Saniya LeBlanc, Ken Goodson and Chris Dames
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE41504J

Net primary energy balance of a solar-driven photoelectrochemical water-splitting device
Pei Zhai, Sophia Haussener, Joel Ager, Roger Sathre, Karl Walczak, Jeffery Greenblatt and Thomas McKone
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40880A, Analysis

A hybrid energy cell for self-powered water splitting
Ya Yang, Hulin Zhang, Zong-Hong Lin, Yan Liu, Jun Chen, Ziyin Lin, Yu Sheng Zhou, Ching Ping Wong and Zhong Lin Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE41485J, Communication

Sr- and Mn-doped LaAlO3−δ for solar thermochemical H2 and CO production
Anthony H. McDaniel, Elizabeth C. Miller, Darwin Arifin, Andrea Ambrosini, Eric N. Coker, Ryan O’Hayre, William C. Chueh and Jianhua Tong
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE41372A, Communication

This week we have chosen one Paper, one Analysis article and one Perspective Article that we recommend you check out:

Photocatalytic water gas shift using visible or simulated solar light for the efficient, room-temperature hydrogen generation
Francesc Sastre, Marica Oteri, Avelino Corma and Hermenegildo García
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40656C, Paper

Technical and economic feasibility of centralized facilities for solar hydrogen production via photocatalysis and photoelectrochemistry
Blaise A. Pinaud, Jesse D. Benck, Linsey C. Seitz, Arnold J. Forman, Zhebo Chen, Todd G. Deutsch, Brian D. James, Kevin N. Baum, George N. Baum, Shane Ardo, Heli Wang, Eric Miller and Thomas F. Jaramillo
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40831K, Analysis

Mg rechargeable batteries: an on-going challenge
Hyun Deog Yoo, Ivgeni Shterenberg, Yosef Gofer, Gregory Gershinsky, Nir Pour and Doron Aurbach
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40871J, Perspective

Green chemistry for organic solar cells
Daniel J. Burke and Darren J. Lipomi
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE41096J, Perspective

Carbohydrate and lignin are simultaneously solubilized from unpretreated switchgrass by microbial action at high temperature
Irina Kataeva, Marcus B. Foston, Sung-Jae Yang, Sivakumar Pattathil, Ajaya K. Biswal, Farris L. Poole II, Mirko Basen, Amanda M. Rhaesa, Tina P. Thomas, Parastoo Azadi, Victor Olman, Trina D. Saffold, Kyle E. Mohler, Derrick L. Lewis, Crissa Doeppke, Yining Zeng, Timothy J. Tschaplinski, William S. York, Mark Davis, Debra Mohnen, Ying Xu, Art J. Ragauskas, Shi-You Ding, Robert M. Kelly, Michael G. Hahn and Michael W. W. Adams
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE40932E, Paper

We encourage you to take a look at these two very exciting articles recently published in EES:

Sr- and Mn-doped LaAlO3-δ for Solar Thermochemical H2 and CO Production
Anthony H. McDaniel, Elizabeth C. Miller, Darwin Arifin, Andrea Ambrosini, Eric Coker, Ryan O’Hayre, William Chueh and Jianhua Tong
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE41372A

Hybrid Energy Cell for Self-Powered Water Splitting
Ya Yang, Hulin Zhang, Zong-Hong Lin, Yan Liu, Jun Chen, Ziyin Lin, Yusheng Zhou, C P Wong and Zhonglin Wang
DOI: 10.1039/C3EE41485J