Project description
Efficient catalysts for solar-to-fuel conversion
The synthesis of fuels and chemicals from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide is an important route to sustainable development beyond fossil fuels. Carbon-based materials and organic semiconductor nanoparticles are promising for use as low-cost and efficient photocatalyst materials, however, their photophysical properties remain poorly understood. The EU-funded PolyNanoCat project will use transient optical emission and absorption spectroscopies to study how the structure of polymer/non-fullerene heterojunction nanoparticles affects the photocatalysis mechanism. Discovering the correlation between the photocatalytic activity and the photophysical properties of polymer photocatalysts will guide the design of novel, stable and efficient catalysts for solar-to-fuel conversion.
Objective
Photocatalytic solar fuel production is a potential route to produce clean, renewable and sustainable fuels and chemicals, which would reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Carbon-based materials and organic semiconductors nanoparticles have emerged as potential low cost and efficient photocatalyst materials for hydrogen evolution. However, the photophysical properties of such nanoparticles, and thus the design requirements for optimum function, remain essentially unexplored. This MSCA project, PolyNanoCat, focus on state-of-the-art polymer/non-fullerene acceptor bulk heterojunction nanoparticles as photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution, addressing their previously unexplored photophysical properties. Multiple factors are likely to determine the photophysics of photocatalysts and their solar to hydrogen efficiency, including polymer microstructure, defects and metal atoms addition, but these factors have only received very limited study to date. The PolyNanoCat project aim to correlate the photocatalytic activities of polymer/non-fullerene bulk heterojunction nanoparticles for hydrogen evolution with their photophysical properties by using transient absorption and emission spectroscopic techniques, in order to understand their structure/function relationships with the mechanism involved in the photocatalysis process. The correlation between the photocatalytic activity and the photophysic processes involved in solar-to-fuel production by polymer photocatalysts provide material design guidance for novel, stable and efficient photocatalysts.
Fields of science
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisphotocatalysis
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materials
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
SW7 2AZ LONDON
United Kingdom