Photonic Nanoparticle-Doped Architectures for Enhanced Solar-to-Fuel Photocatalytic Conversion - 154060
Abstract
The primary objective of this research is to develop effective catalysts that photochemically split water and generate hydrogen for green energy source applications. Most current photocatalyst systems suffer from low solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency due to the limited range of their light absorption and their high electron-hole recombination rates under irradiation. This research seeks to solve this problem by producing engineered catalysts that provide a tunable surface plasmon resonance that facilitates charge separation of photo-excited carriers and thus exploit the ability of custom-designed nanoshells to absorb light at wavelengths spanning nearly the entire solar spectrum (>90% of sunlight). Work in this area is likely to have broad applicability in a multitude of research areas of interest to AFRL, including photonics, energy, and catalysis. This project involves refinement of synthesis and fabrication techniques previously demonstrated for photonic nanoparticle and photocatalyst hydrogen generation in the principle and co-principle investigators laboratories. The research involves incorporation of gold-silver nanoshells (GS-NSs) in a photocatalytic matrix to tune charge separation in photo-excited carriers. The goals of this ongoing collaborative project are to improve the synthetic methods for preparing silica-coated nanoshells having precise structural parameters and to use time-resolved photoluminescence and transient absorption spectroscopy to examine the charge-transfer pathways of our composite photocatalytic systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 23, 2016
- Source ID
- FA23861514101
Entities
People
- Tai-Chou Lee
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Central University
- United States Air Force