US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Nanostructured Multiferroics for Solar Hydrogen Production

该项目支持阿拉巴马大学塔斯卡卢萨分校的阿鲁纳瓦·古普塔博士与埃及赫尔万中央冶金研究与发展研究所的阿特夫·达乌德博士的合作研究工作。他们计划研究“用于太阳能制氢的纳米结构多铁化合物”。该项目将支持为期一年的初步研究，以制定全面的合作研究提案。对清洁能源的日益增长的需求促使人们做出相当大的努力来开发各种太阳能收集材料和光催化剂的特性。太阳能氢被认为是未来的重要燃料，因为它基于清洁的可再生前体-太阳能和水。预计该项目的科学成果将包括在合成新型纳米结构光催化剂方面的进展以及对其材料和物理特性的基本了解。该项目还将对使用功能化纳米材料进行水分解反应进行可行性研究，这将为进一步研究和开发太阳能和水产生氢气的技术奠定基础。自从1972年首次报道使用二氧化钛从水中光催化生产氢气以来，各种半导体材料已经被开发出来用于生产太阳能燃料。其中一些材料使用紫外光(约占太阳光的4%)实现了高量子效率，但在可见光(约占太阳光的43%)下的运行效率要低得多(接近2.5%)。这主要是因为与材料有关的问题和限制，如带隙、能带结构、光学性质和可用于反应的表面积的控制。PIS计划研究使用纳米结构材料和基于多铁性铋铁氧体(BiFeO3)的复合材料作为光催化剂从水中生产氢气的可行性。利用多铁性材料(结合了铁电性、铁磁性和铁弹性)来分解水在很大程度上仍未被探索；尽管BiFeO3具有约2.6 eV的合适能带隙。探索性研究将包括：开发合成稀土掺杂铋铁氧体多铁纳米结构和金属/多铁纳米复合材料的化学路线，探索纳米材料的尺寸-性能关系，并评估其裂水和制氢能力。基于多铁性的新型纳米结构光催化剂可能具有有效吸收太阳辐射的带隙，并导致电荷载流子的有效分离。采用溶胶-凝胶法、水热合成法和燃烧合成法等化学方法合成纳米结构光催化剂。合成工作将在亚历山大大学进行，而表征和物理性能测量将由阿拉巴马大学进行。拟议的研究需要多学科的努力，这将对科学知识、教育推广和基础设施做出重大贡献。这位美国PI和美国学生计划与他们的埃及合作伙伴一起工作，这将为他们提供一个直接了解在那个国家开展研究的机会。除了基础发现和技术开发，美国-埃及团队还将建立和维护一个有价值的网络，为竞争性、跨学科和全球参与的研究提供支持。美国国际和平研究所是多学科信息技术材料中心(MINT)的积极参与者，并将利用现有资源，最大限度地扩大与这项工作有关的外联和传播成果的影响。该项目由美国-埃及联合科技基金项目资助。这些合作项目的美方支持由美国国务院提供给美国国家科学基金会。埃及政府为埃及方面的合作提供支持。

This project supports a cooperative research effort by Dr. Arunava Gupta of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa with Dr. Atef Daoud of the Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute, Helwan, Egypt. They plan to study "Nanostructured Multiferriocs for Solar Hydrogen Production." The project will support one year of preliminary research to develop a full collaborative research proposal. The increasing demand for clean energy has motivated considerable effort to exploit the properties of various solar-harvesting materials and photocatalysts. Solar hydrogen is considered to be an important fuel for the future as it is based on clean renewable precursors - solar energy and water. The scientific outcomes of the project are expected to include both advances in the synthesis of a new class of nanostructured photocatalysts and fundamental understanding of their materials and physical characteristics. The project will also conduct feasibility studies on the use of functionalized nanomaterials for water splitting reaction which will provide a foundation for further research and technology development for hydrogen generation from solar energy and water. Since the first reported photocatalytic production of H2 from water in 1972 using TiO2, a variety of semiconductor materials have been developed for the production of solar fuels. Some of these materials have achieved high quantum efficiencies using ultraviolet light (about 4% of the sunlight), but the efficiency of operation with visible light (about 43% of the sunlight) is much lower (near 2.5%). This is primarily because of materials-related issues and limitations, such as the control of the band gap, band structure, optical properties and available surface area for reaction. The PIs plan to investigate the feasibility of using nanostructured materials and composites based on multiferroic bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) as photocatalysts for hydrogen production from water. The use of multiferroic materials(combining the properties of ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity) for water splitting remain largely unexplored; although BiFeO3, for instance, has a suitable energy band gap around 2.6 eV. The exploratory research will include: developing chemical routes for the synthesis of rare earth doped bismuth ferrite multiferroic nanostructures and metal/multiferroics nanocomposites, exploring size-property relationships of the nanomaterials, and assessing their capabilities for water splitting and hydrogen production. The novel nanostructured photocatalysts based on multiferroics are likely to possess band gaps for efficient absorption of solar radiation and also result in efficient separation of charge carriers. Chemical routes, such as sol-gel, hydrothermal and combustion synthesis, will be utilized to synthesize the nanostructured photocatalysts. The synthesis work will be carried out at Alexandria University, while the characterization and physical property measurements will be carried out by at the University of Alabama. The proposed research requires a multidisciplinary effort that will make significant contributions to scientific knowledge, education outreach and infrastructure. The planned travel by the US PI and US student to work with their Egyptian partners will provide them a direct opportunity to learn about carrying out research in that country. Beyond fundamental discovery and technology development, the US-Egypt team will establish and maintain a valuable network that provides for competitive, interdisciplinary, and globally engaged research. The US PI is an active participant in the multi-disciplinary Center for Materials for Information Technology (MINT) and will leverage the existing resources available for the maximum impact of outreach and dissemination of results specifically related to this work. This project is funded through the US-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund Program. Support for the U.S. side of these cooperative projects is provided to the National Science Foundation by the U.S. Department of State. The Egyptian Government provides support for the Egyptian side of the collaboration.