Experimental Study of a Novel Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Cell Design for Clean Hydrogen Generation

Abstract

A unique meshy dome-type photoanode design is investigated to utilize the available light at any angle of the sunbeams during daytime due to its specific configuration. The configuration of the working photoanode aims to harvest the maximum available sunlight by increasing the illuminated area. The mesh content allows the light beams to spread inside the dome electrode to increase the absorbed light at the different angles of the sunbeams during the daytime. The present dome mesh cathode and photoanode are manufactured from cheap materials such as titanium and stainless steel. The stainless-steel photoanode is deposited by titanium dioxide using the sol–gel dip-coating method. The current electrodes are placed in a potassium dioxide solution of 0.25 M and tested under artificial light at two conditions, including 45° tilted and vertical light. The current experimental results show that the greatest photocurrent density obtained is 5.05 mA/cm2. The maximum hydrogen production rates obtained under the tilted and vertical-light conditions are 14.01 and 14.36 μg/s, respectively. The highest overall energy efficiency obtained at the vertical-light condition is 2.92%. The enhancement of the hydrogen production rate fluctuates in the range of 75–80% that occurs with tilted light, compared with the enhancement under vertical-light conditions.