Interfacing earth-abundant electrocatalysts with mesostructured oxide photoanodes for solar photoelectrocatalysis.

将地球丰富的电催化剂与介观结构氧化物光电阳极连接起来，用于太阳能光电催化。

• 批准号: 1213283
• 负责人: Daniel Gamelin
• 金额: $ 34.41万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2016-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1213283&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Interfacing; earth; abundant; electrocatalysts; mesostructured

With this award from the Chemical Catalysis Program of the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation, Professor Daniel Gamelin at the University of Washington, Seattle, will carry out studies in the area of solar energy conversion and storage in the form of chemical fuels. Specifically, this project seeks to address the challenge of interfacing non-crystalline water-oxidation electrocatalysts with crystalline semiconductor photoelectrodes for photolectrochemical (PEC) solar energy conversion. The research will use a combination of preparative and analytical techniques to develop a deeper understanding of interfaces in a set of composite catalyst/semiconductor photoanodes. The principal investigator (PI) will apply state-of-the-art photoelectrochemical and spectroscopic techniques to assay these photoelectrodes and to advance understanding of microscopic relationships between surface morphology, functionalization, and redox catalysis. The PI and his team will seek to develop fundamental structure/function relationships that address catalyst-semiconductor coupling, electron-hole recombination dynamics, and the impact such catalysts have on the photoanode electronic structure. The research will address mechanistic differences between electrocatalytic and photoelectrocatalytic responses of this family of water-oxidation catalysts, as well as performance differences. This work will improve the solar water splitting efficiencies of these composite photoanodes in PEC cell configurations, particularly at low overpotentials where recombination losses are most severe and detrimental to energy conversion efficiencies.This research will focus on interfacing non-crystalline Earth-abundant electrocatalysts with mesostructured oxide photoanodes for use in solar photoelectrochemical devices capable of splitting water that will generate hydrogen as a chemical fuel. This research will advance the general understanding of such composite photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion. The research will yield new complex materials and new fundamental knowledge that could broadly impact future alternative-energy technologies. This project will also provide advanced interdisciplinary training in the areas of inorganic, physical, electro-, and materials chemistries, in order to prepare participating undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers for future careers in science, engineering, and education. There is a special emphasis on integration of research and education at the early career levels (undergraduate, high school) through aggressive involvement of undergraduates, incorporation of experiments and concepts from this research into the University of Washington undergraduate curriculum, collaboration with faculty and students from undergraduate institutions, and mature outreach activities at Seattle-area high schools and community colleges.

西雅图华盛顿大学的Daniel Gamelin教授将利用国家科学基金会化学部化学催化计划的这一奖项，以化学燃料的形式开展太阳能转换和储存领域的研究。具体地说，该项目旨在解决将非晶态水氧化电催化剂与晶态半导体光电极对接用于光化学(PEC)太阳能转换的挑战。这项研究将使用制备和分析技术的组合，以加深对一组复合催化剂/半导体光阳极界面的了解。首席研究员(PI)将应用最先进的光电化学和光谱技术来分析这些光电极，并促进对表面形态、官能化和氧化还原催化之间的微观关系的理解。PI和他的团队将寻求开发基本的结构/功能关系，以解决催化剂-半导体耦合、电子-空穴复合动力学以及此类催化剂对光阳极电子结构的影响。这项研究将解决这一系列水氧化催化剂的电催化和光电催化反应之间的机理差异，以及性能差异。这项工作将提高PEC电池配置中这些复合光阳极的太阳能分解水的效率，特别是在低过电位下，复合损失最严重，并且不利于能量转换效率。这项研究将集中在将富稀土非晶电催化剂与介孔结构氧化物光阳极接口，用于能够分解水的太阳能光电化学器件，该器件将产生氢气作为化学燃料。这项研究将促进人们对这种用于光电化学太阳能转换的复合光电极的总体认识。这项研究将产生新的复杂材料和新的基础知识，可能会对未来的替代能源技术产生广泛影响。该项目还将在无机、物理、电子和材料化学领域提供高级跨学科培训，为参与的本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员未来在科学、工程和教育领域的职业生涯做准备。特别强调通过本科生的积极参与，将这项研究的实验和概念纳入华盛顿大学本科课程，与本科院校的教职员工和学生合作，以及在西雅图地区的高中和社区大学开展成熟的外展活动，在职业生涯早期(本科和高中)整合研究和教育。