SOLAR BIO-HYDROGEN · Design of Hybrid Nanostructured Bio-photocatalyst for Their Application in Bio-photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Production
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2010-09-01 → 2012-08-31
- EU contribution
- €181,103
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-IIF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Design of Hybrid Nanostructured Bio-photocatalyst for Their Application in Bio-photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Production
Driven by the increasing demand for energy and rising atmospheric CO2 levels, there is a long-term necessity to design artificial photochemical (AP) systems to complement natural photosynthesis. Importantly, AP could work in areas having dense urban development or water shortage. A variety of man-made catalysts (ranging from semiconductors to supramolecular complexes) are being explored to drive H+/CO2 photo-reduction into energy rich compounds. However, the high overpotential requirements and/or low turnover rates observed for these catalysts restricts their practical use. Interestingly, enzymes which are used by nature to catalyse various energy/energy rich compound producing reactions have been found to exhibit superior catalytic activity and require minimal driving force. In particular, two classes of enzyme have been extensively studied – they are hydrogenases (H2ase) and carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) which possess highly active Fe- and Ni-containing active sites and exhibit turnover frequencies often measured in thousands (103-104) per second at minimal overpotential. In this project, these enzymes have been coupled with light harvesting semiconductor nanoparticles/thin films (known to efficiently separate the photo-generated charge carriers: e- and h+) to fabricate efficient hybrid photo-catalysts photo-converting H+/CO2 into H2/CO with minimal over-potentials
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The need to establish renewable energy supplies, both as a strategic economic requirement and as a wedge against climate change is leading organizations to invest in research on capturing solar energy. There is particular interest in artificial photosynthesis, using photons to produce electricity or fuels using a man-made device rather than a plant. In natural in-vitro system for hydrogen production, complex molecule i.e. chlorophyll harvest solar energy and subsequent electronic excitation leads to ejection of electrons from the chlorophyll dimer and then passed on to various electron-transferring mediators. This electron donor system may be replaced with the visible light sensitized inorganic photocatalyst. At present, the photocatalysts that have been synthesized and tested fall far short of the efficiency and catalytic rates of enzymes that catalyze either H2 production (hydrogenases) or O2 production (the Mn cofactor of Photosystem II). Therefore the enzymes themselves represent important benchmarks for gauging the possibilities for building water-splitting photocatalysts from inorganic and organic photophysical materials. In such devices enzyme molecules are linked to the semiconductor surface in such a way that they are stable and electrocatalytically active. Therefore, the proposed project is focused on the fabrication of chalcogenide semiconducting nanostructures (mainly nanotubes / nanowire / gyroid having few nm thick wall) and grafting of redox proteins onto these nanostructures for their subsequent exploitation in photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. The exploration of the photoelectrochemistry involved and properties of enzymes which govern the hydrogen generation will also be undertaken. In addition, various other parameters such as the electrolyte pH, nature of sacrificial reagents, combination of chalcogenide photocatalyst- redox proteins (eg. Hydrogenase etc.) will be optimized to maximize solar hydrogen production efficiency.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union