Solar fuels

Abstract

Investigators in the NSF CCI Solar Fuels Program are working on syntheses of light absorbers and catalysts to be components in devices for solardriven water splitting. Catalysts both for water oxidn. to dioxygen (OER) and prot dihydrogen (HER) have been fully characterized. Promising HER heterogeneous catalysts include Ni- Mo nanopowd (Ni, Co) phosphides, which reduce protons in acidic aq. solns. with catalytic efficiencies near that of platinum. PIs Fuels also are investigating homogeneous iron, cobalt, and nickel complexes that catalyze H2 prodn. from protic relatively low overpotentials. Both exptl. and theor. work has shed light on the mechanisms of these reactions. A new photoanode materials, tantalum nitrides and dinitrogen- intercalated tungsten oxide are esp. promising. Also theor. and exptl. study are bismuth vanadate photoanode- catalyst materials; and, in recent work, a promising me synthesis of mixed- metal- oxide water oxidn. catalysts, pulsed laser ablation in liqs. (PLAL) , has been developed. S nanocryst. materials, including a highly active Ni, Fe, Ln, Ti- oxide nanosheet OER catalyst, have been obtained by P.