Artificial Photosynthesis: Solar Fuels Nanomaterials

The objective of this research is an in-depth exploration of semiconductor photo-catalysts that are able to convert CO2 and H2O and sunlight to energy rich and transportable fuels, such as CH4, CH3OH and HCO2H. The main focus is on the synthesis, structure determination, physical property characterization and photocatalytic testing of different classes of semiconductor photo-catalysts, with and without the presence of co-catalysts that bear distinct and well defined nanocrystal (NC) morphologies. Shape-controlled TiO2 nanocrystals have been explored, involving the synthesis and characterization of TiO2 nanocrystals with different populations of {001}, {101} and {010} crystal facets (Fig. 1). The integration of shape-controlled TiO2 nanocrystals with co-catalysts exemplified by Pt and Cu has also been explored. A variety of analytical techniques, such as TEM, HRTEM, PXRD, XPS-UPS, BET and UV-Vis have been employed to characterize properties of these nanomaterials that are considered to be key to understanding, controlling and optimizing their photoactivity. TEM and HRTEM are extremely important in identifying the structure of these semiconductor photo-catalysts, especially when the co-catalysts are too small to be characterized by other techniques.