Plasmonics-mediated Solar-driven Water Splitting System for Green Hydrogen production

Research question

Photocatalytic water splitting, powered by solar energy, presents a promising avenue for producing green hydrogen. However, yield of hydrogen is hindered due to poor light absorption, short carrier lifetimes, and excitons recombination prior extraction. The motivation of this proposal is the development of an efficient photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell by addressing above shortcomings in the design process with aid of advanced characterization methods and novel materials components to push this technology to efficiency levels relevant for industry.

Sustainability aspects

Hydrogen is considered as an environment-friendly, clean, and net-zero emissions fuel. However, the sustainability of the hydrogen industry depends on the source of hydrogen production, the energy efficiency of the production process, and the impact of production process as well as usages of produced hydrogen on our environment/climate. On this basis, there are various form of produced hydrogen: Green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy sources like solar or wind to split water; Blue hydrogen, produced from natural gas with carbon capture; and Grey hydrogen, produced from fossil fuels without carbon capture. Our goal of this proposed research is to produce green hydrogen from water using the energy absorbed directly and entirely from the sunlight.