Studies of Double Perovskite Catalysts for Photo Water Splitting

我们正处于历史的十字路口。燃烧化石燃料等人类活动引起的剧烈气候变化对人类生活、经济和自然界产生了毁灭性影响。我们需要采取紧急行动，减少全球排放，以限制全球进一步变暖。英国成为第一个通过净零排放法的主要经济体。新目标要求英国到2050年将所有温室气体排放量降至净零。因此，如何减少CO2的排放，利用清洁能源成为实现低碳社会的关键问题。太阳光驱动的水裂解技术作为一种将太阳能转化为氢燃料的化学能的有效方法，受到了越来越多的关注。在各种非贵金属基催化剂中，双钙钛矿氧化物由于其低成本、组成灵活性和高本征活性而获得越来越多的关注。然而，双钙钛矿光催化剂的发展仍处于起步阶段。本项目旨在改善双钙钛矿的光催化性能，重点是成分工程和理解结构与活性之间的关系。拟议的研究包括合理的合成，测试和表征的双钙钛矿催化剂与控制表面特性的光催化分解水制氢。该研究将包括催化剂材料的合成，使用先进的原位表征方法，如X射线衍射，TPR，AP-XPS，TAS，TRPL和X射线对分布函数来评估催化剂在催化过程中的表面和体积变化。通过详细的研究，可以建立结构与光催化性能之间的关系，从而合理设计有效的催化剂。该项目是PI在合成新的催化纳米结构和开发原位和操作光谱学和显微镜方面的专业知识的自然结果，以在现实条件下对其进行分析。拟议工作的框架将得到牛津大学广泛的催化剂表征专业知识和基础设施的支持。该项目的合作伙伴包括牛津大学的钻石光源。该项目属于EPSRC能源主题催化研究领域的福尔斯。

We are at a crossroads in our history. The dramatic climate change arising from human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels has had a devasting impact on human lives, the economy and the natural world. We need to act urgently to reduce emissions globally to limit further global warming. UK becomes first major economy to pass net zero emissions law. The new target requires the UK to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. Thus, how to reduce the CO2 emissions and utilize clean energy becomes a critical issue to realise the low carbon society. Solar-light-driven water splitting has attracted increasing attention, being considered as a promising approach to convert solar energy into chemical energy in the form of hydrogen fuel. Among various non-precious metal-based catalysts, double perovskite oxides are gaining an increasing amount of attention because of their low cost, compositional flexibility, and high intrinsic activity. However, the development of double perovskite photocatalysts is still in its infancy stage. This project aims to make improvements in photocatalytic performance of double perovskite with a focus on composition engineering and understanding the relationship between the structure and activity. The proposed research includes rational synthesis, testing and characterization of double perovskite catalysts with controlled surface characteristics for photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production. The research will include catalyst materials synthesis, use of advanced in situ characterization methods such as X-rays diffraction, TPR, AP-XPS, TAS, TRPL and X-rays pair-distribution functions to evaluate the surface and bulk changes of catalysts during catalysis. Through the detailed studies a correlation between the structure and photocatalytic performance relationship rational design for effective catalysts can be established. This project is the natural result of the PI's expertise in the synthesis of new catalytic nanostructures and development of in-situ and operando spectroscopy and microscopy to characterise them under realistic conditions. The framework of the proposed work will be underpinned by extensive catalyst characterisation expertise and infrastructure at the University of Oxford. The project partners include Diamond Light Source at University of Oxford. This project falls within the EPSRC Catalysis research area in Energy Theme.