Electronic/Ionic Conducting Bipolar Membranes for Solar Fuel Production under pH Gradients

摘要

The components required for artificial photosynthesis including light absorbers and catalysts are being developed at a rapid rate.In many cases,the anodic and cathodic reactions driven with these systems are optimized for significantly different pH conditions,raising the issue of how they can be made compatible.Recent work from our group has shown that large pH gradients can be maintained during electrolysis using BPM(bipolar membrane)and that electronic/ionic membranes can be used to couple the two half reactions without the use of external wiring and reducing the ohmic drop in the system.This study investigates the properties of composite BPMs designed for artificial photosynthetic devices that require half reactions to operate under different pH conditions.Details of performance as a function of the nature of the composites and methods of creating BPMs are detailed.