Ra­tio­nal de­sign of high­ly ef­fec­ti­ve pho­to­ca­ta­lysts with atomic-​level con­trol - RA­TO­CAT

Pro­ject sum­ma­ry

Using the sun’s en­er­gy to ge­ne­ra­te hy­dro­gen from water is pro­ba­b­ly the clea­nest and most sus­tain­able source of fuel that we can en­vi­sa­ge. Un­for­tu­n­a­te­ly, ca­ta­lysts that do this are cur­r­ent­ly too ex­pen­si­ve to be com­mer­cial­ly via­ble. The RA­TO­CAT pro­ject aims to de­ve­lop im­pro­ved pho­to­ca­ta­lyst ma­te­ri­als, along with the pro­ces­ses for their pro­duc­tion. The ca­ta­ly­tic per­for­mance of cheap TiO2 and C3N4 pow­ders will be im­pro­ved by tailo­ring their sur­face with na­nost­ruc­tu­red oxi­des as co-​catalysts of highly-​controlled com­po­si­ti­on, na­no­ar­chi­tec­tu­re, size and che­mi­cal state. First princi­ples si­mu­la­ti­ons will be used to de­sign the op­ti­mum na­nost­ruc­tu­res, which will then be de­po­si­ted onto pow­ders with the re­qui­red pre­cis­i­on using ato­mic layer de­po­si­ti­on, again sup­por­ted by si­mu­la­ti­on. Lab-​scale tests of pho­to­ca­ta­ly­tic ac­ti­vi­ty will pro­vi­de feed­back for the op­ti­mi­sa­ti­on of the ma­te­ri­al and pro­cess, be­fo­re the most pro­mi­sing ma­te­ri­als are tested in the field on both pure water and was­te­wa­ter.