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Automated synthesis and characterization techniques for solar fuel production

Nature Reviews Materials volume 7, pages 251–253 (2022)Cite this article

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Solar fuel production provides a sustainable route towards simultaneous energy harvesting and storage. However, this technology is hampered by the complexity and slow manual screening of the chemical design space to find suitable catalytic and light-harvesting materials. One solution is offered by automation, which has begun changing the landscape of material discovery and energy research.

Owing to their high energy density, fossil fuels have been essential for the energy, transportation and manufacturing industries. However, the consumption of fossil fuels increases the atmospheric level of CO2, which is in turn accountable for environmental changes. One sustainable alternative to fossil fuels is converting small molecules like water and CO2 into value-added chemicals (such as H2, CO, methane or ethanol) using sunlight, our most abundant energy source. These so-called solar fuels can be produced by electrocatalysts wired to external solar panels, photoelectrodes operating in solution or photocatalyst particles dispersed in slurry reactors.

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Fig. 1: Assessment of fabrication and characterization techniques based on selected automation criteria.

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Acknowledgements

V.A. is grateful for financial support from St John’s College Cambridge (Title A Research Fellowship) and the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Katarzyna P. Sokol, Virgil Andrei.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ERCEA.B.4, Scientific Management Department, European Research Council Executive Agency, Brussels, Belgium

    Katarzyna P. Sokol

  2. Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Virgil Andrei

  3. Optoelectronics Group, University of Cambridge, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, UK

    Virgil Andrei

Authors
  1. Katarzyna P. Sokol
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  2. Virgil Andrei
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K.P.S. and V.A. conceived and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Katarzyna P. Sokol or Virgil Andrei.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Sokol, K.P., Andrei, V. Automated synthesis and characterization techniques for solar fuel production. Nat Rev Mater 7, 251–253 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00432-1

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