Laboratory of Catalysis and Catalytic Processes - Research lines - Hydrogen production via water splitting and Hydrogen Utilization in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Research and Publications
- Research lines
- » Catalytic combustion of methane
- » Hydrogen Production for Fuel Cells Applications by Catalytic Partial Oxidation of Hydrocarbons
- » Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
- » CO
2 activation - » NH3-Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx for mobile applications
- » NOx abatement in exhaust gases from vehicles
- » Combined Soot Combustion and NOx Removal
- » Process Intensification and Sustainability
- » First-principles guided chemical reaction engineering
- » Hydrogen Production via Water Splitting
- » Hydrogen Utilization in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.
- Laboratories
- Publications since 1999
- Patents
Hydrogen production via water splitting
Hydrogen production via water splitting. Since the discovery of photocatalytic splitting of water into H2 and O2 in a cell consisting of a Pt and a TiO2 photoanode under a small electric bias, the photoelectrochemical (PEC) generation of hydrogen from water using sunlight has attracted many research efforts, as it is considered a clean, low-cost and renewable energy source. However the industrial exploitation is still limited, the major problems being a poor activation by visible light and the low efficiency of the process, also related to the high degree of recombination between the photogenerated charges carriers. Moreover, a complete comprehension of the catalytic mechanisms and of the influence of the material properties on the performances of the process, which are mandatory for the commercialization of the technology, are still missing. Current LCCP research is focused on nanostructured materials (e.g. TiO2 nanotubes and quasi-1D hierarchical nanostructures) to analyze the existing correlations between structural/morphological properties and photoelectrochemical behaviour with the aim of identifying the optimal structures for water splitting applications.
Faculties involved in the project are: Roberto Matarrese, Isabella Nova