化石燃料的大量开采和利用所导致的能源与环境问题是当今社会可持续发展必须面对的两大挑战. 燃料电池通过电化学反应将燃料中的化学能直接转化为电能, 是目前清洁高效的可再生能源转化装置. 光助燃料电池将光响应成分引入到燃料电池中, 可以实现光能/电能和化学能/电能的双重转化, 从而有效提高能源利用效率, 是未来能源转化装置的发展方向, 在实际应用方面具有重要意义和广阔前景. 本文对光助燃料电池进行了简要综述, 重点介绍了我们小组近些年来在该领域的相关研究进展, 总结了目前存在的一些问题, 并对其发展趋势进行了展望.

The exploitation and utilization of fossil fuels have led to serious energy crisis and environmental pollution. In this case, the development of renewable energy is an alternative to traditional energy consumption. Fuel cells (FCs) can convert chemical energy into electricity via the electrochemical reaction, which is green and environment-friendly. Photo-assisted FCs integrate photo-responsive components into FCs, leading to the dual routes of energy conversion including light energy to electricity and chemical energy to electricity, and thus, improving the energy utilization efficiency. The development of photo-assisted FCs is significant for practical application and promising to solve the coming energy crisis. In this review, we give a brief introduction on photo-assisted FCs and highlight our recent achievements in this field. Meanwhile, the limitations and future perspectives of the systems are also presented. We hope that it will offer an easy to grasp but integral view of the photo-assisted FCs.