APCATB-D-14-01160R2-3.pdf (1.78 MB)
Dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell on plasmonic Ag/AgCl @ chiral TiO2 nanofibers for treatment of urban wastewater effluents, with simultaneous production of hydrogen and electricity
journal contribution
posted on 2015-10-16, 09:50 authored by Dawei Wang, Yi Li, Gianluca Li-Puma, Chao Wang, Peifang Wang, Wenlong Zhang, Qing WangThe feasibility of simultaneous production of hydrogen and electricity with simultaneous contaminants removal from “actual” urban wastewater within a dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell (DSPC) is demonstrated for the first time. The photoanode in the DSPC was a novel nanostructured plasmonic Ag/AgCl @ chiral
TiO2 nanofibers (Ag and AgCl nanoparticles supported on chiral TiO2 nanofibers). The
electrolyte in the DSPC was actual wastewater to which an estrogen (17-β-ethynylestradiol, EE2) and a heavy metal (Cu2+8 ) were added. The contaminants
in the wastewater rather than I-/I3
- (usual electrolyte in conventional DSPCs) acted as electrons bridges for the stabilization of charges in this DSPC. Almost total removal of total organic carbon (TOC), Cu2+, EE2, and 70% removal of total nitrogen (TN) were achieved under visible-light irradiation. A relatively high solar energy conversion efficiency (PCE 3.09%) was recorded and approximately 98% of the electricity was converted to H2 after the consumption of dissolved oxygen (DO), Cu2+ and TN. This performance was attributed to the “symbiotic” relationship between the TiO2 chiral nanofibers and the plasmonic effect of Ag nanoparticles at the photoanode although Ag acting as a recombination site may hinder the generation of electricity. The dye N719 in this study exhibited a temporary sensitization effect, and a more efficient sensitizer is expected to be studied in the future. This study opens up new opportunities for producing renewable energy from wastewater treatment processes including organic and inorganic matter as viable resources.
Funding
The study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51322901 and No. 51479066), the Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51421006) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2014B02914 and 2014B39514).
History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Chemical Engineering
Published in
Applied Catalysis B: EnvironmentalVolume
168Pages
25 - 32Citation
WANG, D. ...et al., 2015. Dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell on plasmonic Ag/AgCl @ chiral TiO2 nanofibers for treatment of urban wastewater effluents, with simultaneous production of hydrogen and electricity. Applied Catalysis B-Environmental, 168 pp. 25-32.Publisher
© ElsevierVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Acceptance date
2014-11-08Publication date
2014-12-04Copyright date
2015Notes
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Applied Catalysis B-Environmental and the definitive published version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2014.11.012ISSN
0926-3373Publisher version
Language
- en