SOLAROGENIX · Visible-Light Active Metal Oxide Nano-catalysts for Sustainable Solar Hydrogen Production

The rising global interest in hydrogen as the fuel of future has prompted tremendous interest in the development of efficient hydrogen production technologies that may serve as economically viable solutions towards solar fuels.The project SOLARGENIX will investigate novel nanostructured photocatalysts starting from comprehensive theoretical and experimental investigations on visible-light active meta-oxides for photoelectrochemical splitting of water to target the environmental hydrogen production from saline water by sun illumination. For this purpose, efficient multi-functional photoactive nano-catalysts will be developed whereby underlying atomic understanding of elementary chemical reactions and electrochemical processes will guard the scope of the project. The development of efficient nano-catalysts will be mastered by novel material combinations and interfacial engineering in nano-hetrostructures.Furthermore the project will demonstrate the feasibility of this technology together with industrial partners to develop first module-sized demonstrators for testing under real operating conditions.