Water-splitting for renewable hydrogen energy sources: a molecular level approach

可再生氢能源的水分解：分子水平方法

• 批准号: 2888859
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2888859
• 关键词: Water; splitting; renewable; hydrogen; energy

Developing renewable routes to hydrogen, a sustainable fuel, is critical to achieving net-zero emissions.1 Photocatalytic devices for water-splitting integrate light harvesting, photogenerated charge separation, and catalysis into a single device and so offer a highly promising route to this end goal. However, key uncertainties remain over the kinetics underlying device function and how these kinetics depend upon materials and device design. There is, for example, significant controversy over exactly how an applied voltage or photoexcitation drives catalysis in kinetically challenging, multi-step reactions such as water splitting.2,3 Addressing these questions forms the main research question behind this project. In this project you will focus on a range of inorganic catalysts for sustainable fuel synthesis. At ICL you will use time and potential resolved UV-Vis and NIR spectroelectrochemistry to determine the spectral fingerprint of charge carriers in catalysts and photabsorbers, as well as their populations and reaction kinetics, measured under operating conditions. This information will be complemented by operando resonance Raman spectroscopy at UCL, which will give direct chemical insight into the local structure and conformation of these charged species. The combination of these structural and kinetic analyses will enable molecular design principles to be established, allowing greater insight into the factors that determine photocatalytic material and device performance. In turn, this will further the development of a crucial low carbon technology.

开发可再生的氢气（一种可持续燃料）路线对于实现净零排放至关重要。1用于水分解的光催化设备将光收集、光生电荷分离和催化集成到单个设备中，因此为实现这一最终目标提供了一条非常有前途的路线。然而，关键的不确定性仍然存在于动力学基础的设备功能，以及这些动力学如何取决于材料和设备设计。例如，在具有动力学挑战性的多步反应（如水裂解）中，施加电压或光激发究竟如何驱动催化存在重大争议。在这个项目中，您将专注于一系列用于可持续燃料合成的无机催化剂。在ICL，您将使用时间和电位分辨的紫外-可见和近红外光谱电化学来确定催化剂和光吸收剂中电荷载体的光谱指纹，以及在操作条件下测量的它们的数量和反应动力学。这些信息将得到UCL的操作共振拉曼光谱的补充，这将直接深入了解这些带电物质的局部结构和构象。这些结构和动力学分析的结合将使分子设计原理得以建立，从而更深入地了解决定光催化材料和器件性能的因素。反过来，这将进一步发展一项关键的低碳技术。