STTR Phase I: Highly Efficient and Robust Photocatalyst Systems for CO2 Conversion to Valuable Fuels Using Renewable Solar

STTR一期项目的更广泛影响和商业潜力在于减少二氧化碳排放，同时提供可持续的解决方案，以满足全球对绿色燃料和化学品的需求。二氧化碳是一种主要的温室气体，与气候变化和环境问题有关。将二氧化碳封存在地下和深海的解决方案是昂贵的，而且长期的有效性、安全性和相关的环境影响尚不清楚。该项目仅使用可再生太阳能，将二氧化碳高效地转化为有价值的绿色产品。利用二氧化碳作为原料，经济高效、可持续地生产绿色燃料，将是减少排放和降低对化石燃料依赖的关键。低成本的绿色燃料，如甲烷，预计将加速进入300亿美元的运输和发电市场。该项目解决了这样一个事实，即二氧化碳的高稳定性和转化这些分子的传统方法涉及高温、高压和/或极具活性的试剂，使它们变得昂贵且对环境有害。人工光合作用是一种很有前途的方法，可以将二氧化碳和水转化为具有商业价值的化学产品，如甲烷、甲醇、甲酸和合成气，只使用太阳能。该项目将评估一种革命性的人工光合作用系统的技术可行性，该系统基于磁控溅射外延（MSE）制备的光催化剂晶片，可以一步从二氧化碳中产生绿色甲烷。该项目采用低成本，可扩展的工艺来制备具有高效率和稳定性的光催化剂晶圆，可推断为20年以上的使用寿命。关键的挑战是将新型的二氧化碳还原功能与独特的光收集和水氧化平台有效地结合起来，并优化操作参数以提高整体系统的效率和稳健性。目标是展示具有10%以上太阳能燃料效率的光催化剂晶片，在二氧化碳减少过程中具有前所未有的长期稳定性，以及性能验证的实验规模原型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this STTR Phase I project is in reducing carbon dioxide emissions while delivering a sustainable solution to meet the global demand for green fuels and chemicals. Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas linked to climate change and environmental concerns. Solutions to sequester carbon dioxide underground and in deep oceans are expensive, and the long-term effectiveness, safety, and associated environmental impacts are unclear. This project allows highly efficient conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable green products using only renewable solar energy. The cost-effective, sustainable production of green fuels utilizing carbon dioxide as a feedstock will be key to reducing emissions and lowering dependency on fossil-based sources. Low-cost green fuels, such as methane, are expected to accelerate the penetration of a $30 billion market for the transportation and power generation sectors.This project addresses the fact that the high stability of carbon dioxide and conventional approaches to convert these molecules involve high temperature, high pressure, and/or extremely reactive reagents, rendering them expensive and harmful to the environment. Artificial photosynthesis is a promising approach to convert carbon dioxide and water into commercially valuable chemical products, such as methane, methanol, formic acid and syngas, using only solar energy. This project will assess the technical feasibility of a revolutionary artificial photosynthesis system based on photocatalyst wafers prepared using magnetron sputter epitaxy (MSE) to generate green methane from carbon dioxide in a single step. The proposed project utilizes low-cost, scalable processes to prepare photocatalyst wafers with high efficiencies and stabilities that can be extrapolated to 20+ years of operation lifetime. The key challenge is to effectively combine the novel carbon dioxide reduction functionality with the unique light harvesting and water oxidation platform, and optimize the operating parameters to enhance the overall system efficiency and robustness. The goal is to demonstrate photocatalyst wafers with 10+% solar to fuel efficiencies, unprecedented long-term stability in the carbon dioxide reduction process, and a bench-scale prototype for performance validation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.