Graphene Composites for Sustainable Photocatalytic Transformations
Matteo Cargnello and Curtis Frank, Chemical Engineering
The identification of materials that can efficiently harvest sunlight and store solar energy in chemical bonds will build renewable energy generation potential and also replace the polluting and energy-intensive processes currently used to manufacture many important chemicals. The goal of this research is to demonstrate photocatalytic transformations using novel nanostructures composed of 2D materials (graphene, carbon nitride), polymer templating agents, and inorganic nanocrystals (titania). These graphene composites will be built using bottom-up strategies that exploit inherent interactions between the graphene and carbon nitride sheets, and from well-defined titania nanocrystals sandwiched between the layers of the two 2D semiconductors. The nanocrystals are used to absorb light and speed up reactions by serving as a photocatalyst and will be designed to control charge flow and adsorption and reaction sites to maximize efficiency. The characteristics observed through this research will identify materials for use in the sustainable photocatalytic conversion of water and CO2 and also inform fundamental knowledge around novel photocatalytic systems which can be extended to other solar energy applications.
Publications
Artificial inflation of apparent photocatalytic activity induced by catalyst-mass-normalization and a method to fairly compare heterojunction systems. Energy Environment Sci. 20
Investigation of the optical properties of uniform platinum, palladium, and nickel nanocrystals enables direct measurements of their concentrations in solution Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects September 2020
Nanoscale Spatial Distribution of Supported Nanoparticles Controls Activity and Stability in Powder Catalysts Journal of the American Chemical Society July 2020
General Self-Assembly Method for Deposition of Graphene Oxide into Uniform Close-Packed Monolayer Films Langmuir March 2019
Awarded 2017