Photosynthesis of Hydrogen and Its Synchronous Application in a Hydrogen Fuel Cell: A Comprehensive Experiment in the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory

With the benefits of low cost, energy efficiency, and environmental protection, photocatalytic hydrogen production is considered to be the most promising technology for the development of a clean and sustainable society. However, the utilization of photocatalytically generated hydrogen is not very common yet. Therefore, tertiary education urgently needs to guide undergraduate/graduate students to realize that the hydrogen generated by photocatalysis can be feasibly utilized. Herein, we report an experiment demonstrating the generation, storage, conversion, and utilization of photocatalytic hydrogen. In this paper, TiO[subscript 2], Pt, and lactic acid are respectively used as the photocatalyst, cocatalyst, and sacrificial reagent to generate hydrogen fuel from water. Upon light illumination, hydrogen is photocatalytically produced in the TiO[subscript 2]-Pt-lactic acid-water system. Then, through a drainage method, the hydrogen gas is stored in a U-shaped manifold. Subsequently, the produced hydrogen is directly circulated without purification into a hydrogen fuel cell. The electricity obtained from this fuel cell is used to drive an electric fan. The total lab time is about 3 h. Upon the completion of the experiment, students can master several basic operational skills and can experience how interdisciplinary knowledge of the chemistry and physics of materials can be utilized to solve some energy and environmental problems.