Photocatalytic Reforming of Organics for Sustainable Production of Hydrogen Under Visible Light Irradiation

近年来，全球80%以上的能源消耗依赖于化石燃料的使用，能源生产日益受到关注。这导致了几个问题：首先，化石能源正在迅速枯竭；其次，化石燃料的广泛使用导致了严重的环境问题，如全球变暖。氢具有高效、零排放的特点，是一种潜在的替代能源载体。因此，目前许多研究活动都是针对利用半导体光催化剂，如二氧化钛（TiO2），来收获可再生太阳能并产生氢。然而，这些传统的光催化剂存在一些问题，如高电子-空穴复合和对可见光的吸收差，导致效率低。该项目旨在识别基于在半导体表面添加过渡金属的新型光催化材料，以便在可见光照射下可持续地生产氢。我们的愿景是重新构想传统的基于二氧化钛的光催化系统，通过有机分子的重整来产生氢，调用功能材料的协同耦合。该项目的成功将为科学界提供一个优化的催化系统，通过光催化有机重整制氢，并为解决环境危机和能源短缺提供一项有前途的技术。这些具有挑战性的目标将通过计算（DFT研究，微动力学建模）和实验技术的结合来实现。

The energy production has become a growing concern in recent times with over 80% of the global energy consumption relying on the use of fossil fuels. This leads to several problems: first, fossil energy sources are rapidly depleting; second, extensive use of fossil fuels results in serious environmental issues such as the global warming. Hydrogen represents a potential alternative energy carrier due to its high efficiency and zero-emission operations. For this reason, many research activities are currently directed toward the utilization of semiconductor photocatalysts, such as titanium dioxide (TiO2), to harvest the renewable solar energy and produce hydrogen. However, these conventional photocatalysts present several problems, such as high electron-hole recombination and poor absorption of visible light, which lead to low efficiencies. This project aims at identifying novel photocatalytic materials based on the addition of transition metals to the semiconductor surface, for sustainable production of hydrogen under visible light irradiation. Our vision is to reimagine the conventional TiO2-based photocatalytic system to produce hydrogen by reforming of organic molecules, invoking synergistic coupling of functional materials. Success of this project will provide the scientific community with an optimized catalytic system for production of hydrogen through photocatalytic reforming of organics and with a promising technology to address the environmental crises and energy shortage. These challenging goals will be achieved through a combination of computational (DFT studies, microkinetic modelling) and experimental techniques.