Development of novel photocatalysts for hydrogen production through solar water splitting processes

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The world faces the crisis of energy shortage. Due to the depletion of fossil fuels and resultant environmental problems from their combustion, there is a high demand of searching for new energy sources that are clean, inexpensive and sustainable. Significant attention has been paid to hydrogen as potentially a next generation of fuels, which is one of the most abundant elements in the earth. However, hydrogen is present in very large amount in combination with oxygen in the form of water (i.e. the ocean) or in combination with carbon and other elements in fossil fuels and innumerable hydrocarbon compounds. At present, most of the world's current supply of hydrogen gas is derived from fossil fuels, which is costly and does not eliminate the emission of Green House Gases that results in the global climate change as well as a large mount of other related pollutants. Therefore, novel technologies for sustainable hydrogen production without generating environmental problemsare highly desired. Water splitting through a solar photocatalytic reaction under solar light has been demonstrated to be a very promising process to generate hydrogen without extra energy consumption (only consumes solar energy) andenvironmental problems. During this photocatalytic process, the sun light is used to provide the energy to break the bond between hydrogen and oxygen for hydrogen production. If we can extract hydrogen from water efficiently, then we will have an unlimited reservoir, the ocean, for hydrogen production. The research on water splitting by photo-catalysis was triggered in 1972. However, due to the lack of suitable photocatalytic electrode materials with appropriate band gap structures, efficiency and stability, the development of solar photocatalytic hydrogen production has been in a dilemma. The main objective of this proposed research is to develop high-performance photocatalytic materials with considerably increased efficiency of hydrogen production through the solar photo-chemical process, based on current achievements in this field.