Experimentally, the project covered the full chain from materials synthesis to device-level testing. A family of carbon nitride-based materials, including polymeric, amorphous and crystalline derivatives as well as single-atom and nanoparticle hybrids, was synthesized under controlled thermal treatments and gas atmospheres. These materials were integrated into thin-film electrodes on transparent conductive glass substrates and into compact reactor architectures.
A key achievement was the development of fluorine-free, bio-based electrodes using ethyl cellulose as a binder. This approach replaces conventional fluorinated ionomers like Nafion with a renewable polymer that provides strong adhesion between catalyst particles and the conductive substrate, enabling stable operation without persistent fluorinated chemicals. The strategy was successfully applied to crystalline carbon nitride electrodes for hydrogen evolution and to mixed inorganic–organic heterostructures, demonstrating that greener electrode architectures can match or even outperform benchmark systems, like Pt/C.
To accelerate screening, a modular electrochemical platform with six parallel cells was designed and implemented. This allowed simultaneous testing of multiple electrocatalysts under controlled conditions. Routine characterization (structural, optical, thermal and electronic) was complemented by advanced methods such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, surface photovoltage and time-resolved microwave conductivity. These techniques revealed how composition, morphology and interfacial bonding govern light absorption, charge separation and catalytic performance.
The materials were evaluated in several relevant reactions: alkaline hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution and CO2 electroreduction to syngas. The project generated multiple open-access publications, two patent families (on synthetic-fuel generation and fluorine-free hydrogen-evolution electrodes) and preprints on scaling low-temperature CO2-to-syngas electroreduction and on multi-material 3D-printed photoelectrocatalytic composites.
