New photocatalytic materials for the reduction of CO2 to fuels

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The project will explore the development of materials that utilise solar energy to drive the production of chemical fuels from waste, or widely available feedstock's, such as CO2 and H2O. The approach, which is commonly called artificial photosynthesis, has the potential to offer a sustainable route to carbon based fuels. However, to realise this goal new, more efficient photocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 to products such as CO, CH3OH, CH4 are required. The successful applicant will join a newly established programme that will build upon our recent work demonstrating photocatalytic activity for a new family of complex oxide photocatalysts (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 14480) and on novel molecular CO2 reduction catalysts (Chem. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03225C, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 1562). In addition to developing the new catalysts the student will also get the opportunity to utilise advanced transient spectroscopies to gain a fundamental understanding of the key mechanistic parameters controlling photocatalytic activity.