CO2 Intermediates · From CO2, Water and Sunlight to Valuable Solar Fuels: Tracking Reaction Intermediates in Solar Fuel Generation with Ultrafast Spectroscopy for More Efficient Catalysis
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-05-01 → 2019-04-30
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
From CO2, Water and Sunlight to Valuable Solar Fuels: Tracking Reaction Intermediates in Solar Fuel Generation with Ultrafast Spectroscopy for More Efficient Catalysis
Decarbonising our industrial, transport and energy sectors has become one of the most urgent challenges of modern society and research. The way we produce fuels and chemicals and store energy has to become sustainable and carbon neutral in the coming years. Integrating renewable energy sources such as solar and wind is the pathway forward to make this transition happen and this requires more knowledge and education in the development of new, clean, efficient and scalable technology based on photo- and electrocatalysis. The objectives of this Marie Curie project and my future research are to design efficient devices for the generation of valuable fuels and chemicals from CO2, water and sunlight by understanding electro- and photoelectrocatalysis on the molecular/atomic scale and on the relevant timescales such as time of solar energy absorption (=charge generation), of charge transport to the catalyst surface and of breaking and making bonds to form a valuable product. The Marie Curie fellowship allowed me to acquire knowledge and expertise in a set of spectroscopy techniques that allow me to track each of these processes by taking picosecond, nanosecond, microsecond, millisecond and second snap shots of the system after light absorption. Together with modern computational modelling techniques, the aim is to be able to assemble these snap shots to a full picture and understand reaction mechanisms, bottlenecks and energy losses in the device and ultimately establish guidelines that further the development of better catalysts.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Fundamental understanding of the catalytic chemistry and underlying mechanisms in carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction is an urgent need for efficient solar energy conversion from CO2, water and sunlight to valuable carbon-neutral fuels that urgently need to replace our fossil fuel-based economy of today. This proposal focuses on unraveling the reaction mechanisms of the reduction of CO2 in aqueous photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems in order to allow innovative development of more efficient chemistry for the production of solar fuels based on the understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We propose to study the catalytic cycle of photo-driven CO2 reduction on earth-abundant and non-toxic materials with state-of-the-art transient absorption (TAS) and transient infrared spectroscopy. The combination of these techniques will open up groundbreaking opportunities to monitor reaction intermediates on the relevant timescales of charge transfer to form the reaction product. First, selectivity of the catalyst will be tuned with the deposition of sub-nanometer oxide layers by atomic layer deposition (ALD) – a technique with a precision of down to one atomic monolayer. Then, the selective reactions will be studied in detail by TAS and transient IR spectroscopy. With the outstanding expertise of the host professors Prof. Durrant and Prof. Hamm (secondment) and my broad and profound expertise in photoelectrochemical systems and ALD, this project is expected to have a high success rate despite its challenging nature. With a better understanding of CO2 reduction processes, the design of more efficient catalytic systems will advance this renewable technology and facilitate its scale-up and commercialization. Finally, through this project I will not only expand my technical and scientific skills but also develop and strengthen my managerial skills to become a leading independent researcher in the field of solar energy conversion.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union