Publications

Energy Materials Laboratory

Publications

Robust FeOOH/BiVO4/Cu(In, Ga)Se2 tandem structure for solar-powered biocatalytic CO2 reduction
Authors
J. Kim, Y. W. Lee, E. G. Choi, P. Boonmongkolras, B. W. Jeon, H. Lee, S. T. Kim, S. K. Kuk, Y. H. Kim, B. Shin, C. B. Park
Journal
Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Vol
8
Page
8496-8502
Year
2020

A robust photovoltaic (PV) is essential for long-term redox biotransformations in biocatalytic photoelectrochemical (PEC) platforms. Here, we report a single Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell for unbiased photobiocatalytic reduction reactions. The photoanode/CIGS/cathode tandem assembly drives cofactor-dependent biocatalytic CO2 reduction under visible light. Our scalable PEC-PV tandem device achieves the longest reaction time of 72 h and the highest ever recorded turnover frequency and total turnover number of the cofactor of 0.236 h−1 and 11.2, respectively, for biocatalytic PEC production of formate through cofactor regeneration. This benchmark performance is attributed to the excellent PEC stability of the CIGS component; the substitution of CIGS with a perovskite solar cell (PSC) results in unstable generation of photocurrent and a lower concentration of formate under high-humidity environments because of the water-induced degradation of PSC. This work demonstrates the propriety of CIGS in robust PEC-PV tandems for artificial photosynthesis.