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

世界面临着能源短缺的危机。由于化石燃料的消耗和燃烧所产生的环境问题，人们迫切需要寻找清洁、廉价和可持续的新能源。作为地球上最丰富的元素之一，氢作为潜在的下一代燃料受到了极大的关注。然而，大量的氢以水（即海洋）的形式与氧结合，或与化石燃料和无数碳氢化合物中的碳和其他元素结合。目前，世界上大部分的氢气供应来自化石燃料，这是昂贵的，并且不能消除导致全球气候变化的温室气体的排放以及大量的其他相关污染物。因此，不产生环境问题的可持续制氢新技术是非常需要的。在太阳光线下，通过太阳光催化反应分解水已经被证明是一个非常有前途的过程，可以产生氢，而不需要额外的能源消耗（只消耗太阳能）和环境问题。在这个光催化过程中，太阳光被用来提供能量来破坏氢和氧之间的键以产生氢。如果我们能有效地从水中提取氢，那么我们就有了一个无限的储氢库——海洋。光催化分解水的研究始于1972年。然而，由于缺乏合适的具有合适带隙结构、效率和稳定性的光催化电极材料，太阳能光催化制氢的发展一直处于两难境地。本研究的主要目的是在现有研究成果的基础上，通过太阳能光化学工艺开发高性能光催化材料，大大提高制氢效率。

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.