Enhancing performance of artificial photosynthesis by engineered nanomaterials and photon management

• Grant number: 14/50516-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2015
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Agreement: AKA
• Principal Investigator: Flavio Leandro de Souza
• Grantee: Flavio Leandro de Souza
• Principal researcher abroad: Kari Tapio Niemi
• Institution abroad: Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The worlds demand for energy has increased significantly over the last decades induced by population growth and industrialization of developing countries. As a result, an increase of the CO2 emission has been observed to have a major impact on the environment. This proposal describes a collaborative research project on the development of novel nanostructured materials for energy generation and storage by combining the efforts of Optoelectronics Research Centre (Finland) and UFABC (Brazil) as partners. Hydrogen is a promising energy source, wilfilarge chemical energy content and absence of polluting by-products. Direct conversion of solar photons into chemical energy by splitting water into its constituent components, hydrogen and oxygen, is often called artificial photosynthesis. We will investigate the most important and challenging issues on the hydrogen generation from the materiais science point of view. Important requirements for efficient material for this purpose are high chemical stability, ability to absorb sunlight on a broad band, favorable conduction band position, efficient separation of electron and hole and specific catalysis of the chemical reaction. We shall address these versatile requirements by applying new concepts of nanophotonic photon management, novel materiais deposition techniques and characterization of fundamental chemical reactions on the surfaces of the nanomaterials. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

TOFANELLO, ARYANE; FREITAS, ANDRE L. M.; CARVALHO, JR., WALDEMIR M.; SALMINEN, TURKKA; NIEMI, TAPIO; SOUZA, FLAVIO L.. Hematite Surface Modification toward Efficient Sunlight-Driven Water Splitting Activity: The Role of Gold Nanoparticle Addition. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, v. 124, n. 11, p. 6171-6179, MAR 19 2020. (14/50516-6, 16/01000-2)

CARVALHO, JR., WALDEMIR M.; SOUZA, FLAVIO L.. Hematite Surface Activation by Chemical Addition of Tin Oxide Layer. ChemPhysChem, v. 17, n. 17, p. 2710-2717, SEP 5 2016. (13/05471-1, 13/07296-2, 11/19924-2, 14/50516-6)

FREITAS, ANDRE L. M.; CARVALHO, JR., WALDEMIR M.; SOUZA, FLAVIO L.. Enhanced water oxidation efficiency of hematite thin films by oxygen-deficient atmosphere. Journal of Materials Research, v. 30, n. 23, p. 3595-3604, DEC 14 2015. (14/50516-6, 14/11736-0, 11/19924-2, 13/07296-2)

FREITAS, ANDRE L. M.; SOUZA, FLAVIO L.. Synergetic effect of Sn addition and oxygendeficient atmosphere to fabricate active hematite photoelectrodes for light- induced water splitting. Nanotechnology, v. 28, n. 45, NOV 10 2017. (14/11736-0, 14/50516-6, 13/07296-2)