BIOGRAPHY

Solar Hydrogen Production by Photocatalytic Water Splitting [BPN672]
Photocatalytic water splitting is the process of converting water into hydrogen and oxygen with solar
energy using a photocatalytic material. When light is absorbed by the photocatalyst, an electron-hole
pair is generated that interacts with water molecules in a surface reduction-oxidation reaction to
decompose the water into hydrogen and oxygen. One of the greatest challenges in photocatalysis is
engineering the photocatalytic material for high conversion efficiency and wide absorption spectrum in
the visible light range. Crystalline nano-structures have demonstrated promising capabilities as
photocatalysts due to their high surface area-to-volume ratios and ability to be densely grown at
large scales. This project aims to improve the performance of photocatalytic nano-structures, in
particular TiO2 nanowires, using innovative growth processes, co-catalytic materials, and band-gap
manipulation.