Photoelectrochemical reactor

Fig. 9.3 Schematic images of examples of photoelectrochemical reactors (a) Batch reactor, (b) Flow reactor, c Recirculating batch reactor (evacuation is optional)...

Figure 10.2 (a) Novel sparged photoelectrochemical reactor cross section and (b) schematic diagram used by Harper et al. (2001). 

Harper, J.C., Christensen, P.A., Egerton, T.A., and Scott, K. (2001), Mass transport characterization of a novel gas sparged photoelectrochemical reactor, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, 31 267-276. 

The reductive cleavage of the alkylcobalamine is facilitated by light irradiation and can then proceed at a much more positive potential. A demonstration photoelec-trochemical reactor for the Bij-catalyzed photoelectrochemical synthesis of Michael adduct 17, the alarm pheromone of the ant atta texana (Scheme 9) has been constructed where the complete device is driven solely by solar energy . Hopefully, mediated photoelectrochemical reactions of this type will also be realized at chemically modified electrodes. 

However, due to the inherent complexity of this minute photoelectro-chemical system, details of the underlying reaction mechanisms of photocatalysis are even today still far from being understood. In contrast to an ordinary photoelectrochemical cell which employs an external bias voltage to deliberately separate oxidation and reduction processes in different compartments of the reactor, in photocatalysis both processes occur on the surface of the same semiconductor particle, usually only separated by a distance of a few angstroms. Moreover, as is evident from basic principles, the reaction rate of the overall process will be limited by the... 

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