New Developments and Future Prospects in the Solar Water Splitting

Hydrogen is the material with the highest energy density. Therefore, we can consider it the fuel of the future. Methods of obtaining hydrogen in recent years have become the most important area of scientific research. Hydrogen production using solar energy is very important due to the absence of atmospheric pollution and environmental protection. In this article, we consider methods of obtaining hydrogen by water splitting on components using solar energy. With this goal, we consider a hydrogen fuel cell principle of operation and various methods for hydrogen production. The main attention is offered to the solar-powered water splitting driven by a photoelectrode reaction. We consider such methods as photoelectrochemical water splitting, photovoltaic electrolysis, and application plasmon-enhanced solar cells for the water splitting. The paper highlights advantages and disadvantages of different methods. According to our analysis, the further progress in the hydrogen production is based on application of nanotechnologies and plasmonic effects, which promise increasing of the water splitting efficiency. Advances in nanotechnology, including plasmon-enhanced materials and multi-junction photovoltaic cells, offer novel routes to higher efficiency and lower costs.