Photocatalytic Reforming of Organics for Sustainable Production of Hydrogen Under Visible Light Irradiation

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The energy production has become a growing concern in recent times with over 80% of the global energy consumption relying on the use of fossil fuels. This leads to several problems: first, fossil energy sources are rapidly depleting; second, extensive use of fossil fuels results in serious environmental issues such as the global warming. Hydrogen represents a potential alternative energy carrier due to its high efficiency and zero-emission operations. For this reason, many research activities are currently directed toward the utilization of semiconductor photocatalysts, such as titanium dioxide (TiO2), to harvest the renewable solar energy and produce hydrogen. However, these conventional photocatalysts present several problems, such as high electron-hole recombination and poor absorption of visible light, which lead to low efficiencies. This project aims at identifying novel photocatalytic materials based on the addition of transition metals to the semiconductor surface, for sustainable production of hydrogen under visible light irradiation. Our vision is to reimagine the conventional TiO2-based photocatalytic system to produce hydrogen by reforming of organic molecules, invoking synergistic coupling of functional materials. Success of this project will provide the scientific community with an optimized catalytic system for production of hydrogen through photocatalytic reforming of organics and with a promising technology to address the environmental crises and energy shortage. These challenging goals will be achieved through a combination of computational (DFT studies, microkinetic modelling) and experimental techniques.