presentation on

ARTIFICIAL LEAF FOR

HYDROGEN GAS GENERATION
Submitted by:
MILAN BENNY (1MJ16CH034)

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

MVJ COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
CHANNASANDRA,NEAR ITPB
BENGALURU 560067

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 CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Noceras Initial Design
 Structure and Basic Component
 Working
 Principle of Artificial Leaf
 Why Artificial Leaf?
 Advantages
 Issues
 Contribution to future energy supply
 Researches undergoing
 References

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 INTRODUCTION
A global challenge is that the energy consumption is increasing at a
rapid pace , in this challenging context researchers have found inspiration
in the process of natural photosynthesis when they attempt to convert the
plentiful, but intermittent , solar irradiation incident on the Earth’s surface
into a storable fuel, using a range of methods commonly coined as artificial
photosynthesis.
One emerging technology to achieve such solar-to-fuel conversion is the
“artificial-leaf device”, which essentially comprises an assembly of
photovoltaic's (PVs) that drives two electro catalyst electrodes immersed in
water. This device produces molecular hydrogen and oxygen using only
sunlight and water as the input.

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 Photosynthesis is the chemical process by which plants, algae and some
bacteria store energy from the sun in the form of carbohydrates.
Photosynthesis is thus the ultimate source of all fuel we use today. The raw
materials needed for photosynthesis are water and CO2.
The 3 approaches for converting sunlight into fuel are:
1. Photosynthesis in plants ,bacteria and algae.
2. Artificial photosynthesis.
3. Thermocouple routes.

Artificial photosynthesis is a chemical process that biomimics the natural

process of photosynthesis to convert sunlight , water and CO 2 directly into
solar fuel without involving an electricity network ,as in electrolysis using
power from photovoltaic cells.

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ARTIFICIAL LEAF: is like leaving cell , this device can turn the energy
of sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an
energy source.
it is a silicon based device that uses solar energy to split hydrogen and
oxygen in water ,thereby producing hydrogen in clean way ,leaving virtually
no pollutants.

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 Noceras initial design
The technology which was designed to simulate the natural energy
generating process of photosynthesis used by plants first successfully
developed by American chemist Daniel G Nocera in 2011
Noceras initial design ,with artificial leaf technology ,an estimated one to
three bottles of water could produce enough energy to power a single
household in less developed regions of the world
The device Nocera explains is made entirely of earth abundant inexpensive
materials –mostly silicon , cobalt and nickel and work entirely in ordinary
water. Although it works efficiently on cloudy and overcast days
Specifically the team joined a commercially available triple junction solar
cells to catalysts : cobalt –borate for splitting water molecule and a nickel
–molybdenum-zinc alloy to form the hydrogen gas

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 Structure and basic component
Basic component of an artificial leaf is a silicon leaf that
is coated in a chemical catalyst which speed up the water
splitting reaction.

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i. Si semiconductor- Act as light harvesting catalyst .it capture
solar cell
ii. Co-OEC ( cobalt oxygen evolving complex)- it deposit
oxygen at the anode side .
iii. NiMoZn- produces H2 from combining H+ & e- made
available from semiconductor at cathode side
iv. ITO(indium tin oxide) layer-A conducting metal oxide layer
to stabilize silicon in water
v. Stainless Steel – used for support .Si is deposited on it

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 WORKING
In an open vessel of water ,when solar energy hits the chip ,a chemical
reaction similar to photosynthesis occurs the hydrogen and oxygen
molecule of water are split apart , resulting in the separation of protons and
electrons .The proton and electron are captured on the chip and are
recombined to form hydrogen gas which can be used for immediate
generation of electricity or stored for later use.

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 The Artificial leaf is a thin sheet of semi conducting silicon- the
material most solar cells are made of which turns the energy of sunlight
into a flow of wireless electricity within the sheet .Bound onto the silicon
is a layer of a cobalt based catalyst ,which releases oxygen a material
whose potential for generating fuel from sunlight .The other side of the
silicon sheet is coated with a layer of nickel – molybdenum alloy , which
releases hydrogen from the water molecules

CRUCIAL STEPS:
1. Developing catalyst that uses solar energy to split water into oxygen and
hydrogen
2. And creating others that can convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide into an
energy dense fuel.

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 Principles of artificial leaf
An artificial leaf operates by using light-energy input to split water into
hydrogen and oxygen according to the following equations:
2H2O → O2 + 4e–+ 4H+
(E = +1.23 V vs. NHE) :the oxygen evolution reaction(OER)
4e– + 4H+ →2 H2
(E = 0 V vs. NHE): the hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)
where NHE indicates the normal hydrogen electrode.
Overall rxn : 2H2O 2H2+ O2

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Solar to chemical energy conversion requires three concerted steps:
(1)absorption of light,
(2)creation of charges (electrons and holes) with an appropriate chemical
potential to enable
(3)catalytic chemical reactions in which the charges are used to oxidize and
reduce compounds in endothermic reactions such as the splitting of water
and the reduction of carbon dioxide.

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 Why artificial leaf
Other means of capturing hydrogen fuel includes steam reforming in
which high temperature steam is reacted with methane in the presence of a
metal catalyst and hydraulic fracturing ,in which fuel containing chemicals
are inject into the ground at high pressure in order to release the natural gas
from the underground rock formation ,neither of those approaches is
considered to be clean form of hydrogen production since both involves
the release of potentially harmful chemicals into the environment
Artificial leaf also makes hydrogen a renewable energy source ,since
sunlight and water are abundant on earth .Hence with artificial leaf ,
individuals can produce locally their own energy and can leave apart from
an electricity grid .

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ADVANTAGES
• Clean production of hydrogen , which is considered
as an alternative form of energy
• H2 can then be stored and either burned or run
through a fuel cell to generate electricity.
• It can store energy in the chemical form that is the
great advantage of this device over the solar panel
which we use now a day.
• It is inexpensive as the materials are abundant.

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ISSUES
• safe storing of hydrogen gas.
• Freezing in sub zero temperatures.
• The efficiency needs to be improved.
• For high performance, the cost due to huge silicon
solar cell increases.

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The contribution of artificial photosynthesis
to our future energy supply
• Energy storage and transportation
• New business models for energy generation
• Renewable transport fuels
• Use and recycling of CO2
• Fuel production that does not compete with
food production.

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RESEARCHES UNDERGOING
• To increase the efficiency of this device.
• To explore the use of photovoltaic (solar cell)
materials other than silicon such as iron oxide
which might be even cheaper to produce.

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REFERENCES
1. https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-leaf
2. Tiva Sharifi, Christian Larsen, Jia Wang, Wai Ling Kwong,” Toward a Low-Cost
Artificial Leaf: Driving Carbon-Basedand Bifunctional Catalyst Electrodes
with Solution-Processed Perovskite Photovoltaics’’(2016).
3. Mark D. Symes,” The Artificial Leaf: Recent Progress and Remaining
Challenges’’ 20/4 (2016), 155-159.
4. http://news.mit.edu/2011/artificial-leaf-0930.

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 THANK YOU

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