An autodriven, solar fuel collection for a highly compact, biomimetic-modified artificial leaf without membrane

摘要： Hydrogen fuel generation from water splitting has recently attracted much attention due to its high potential as a clean, renewable energy source. To obtain pure H2 fuel, it is inevitably required to separate the H2/O2 product gas mixture, mainly relying on a membrane system at the current stage. However, this process has inherent durability and cost issues due to contamination, corrosion and its complex configuration. In our current work, we invented a highly compact gas separation and collection method in a water electrolysis system, which is set onto a biomimetically modified electrode without the use of a membrane or external convective flow. A key idea of this smart, compact and self-driven system is gas bubble manipulation by buoyant force and a slippery liquid infused porous surface (SLIPS). With the critical help of the biomimetic SLIPS wall by blocking bubble leakage, H2 and O2 product gases can be separately collected at the corresponding collection port. As a result, we achieved a remarkably improved H2 collection value of over 90 % with high purity using this membrane-free electrolysis system in which the product gases are separated only by their intrinsic buoyancy. This simple but effective gas separation/collection system is also applied to a highly compact, monolithic artificial leaf, in which the solar water splitting is practicably and conveniently conducted in a compact, floatable design.