The global potential of solar energy is vast, but we currently tap only minor amounts to meet our ever-growing energy demand.  Photocatalytic conversion of radiant to chemical energy provides a variety of possibilities for local, off-the-grid energy.  The major obstacle, however, is the lack of catalysts that can efficiently couple abundant solar energy with a reducing agent such as water to cleave the C-O bonds in CO2 and form C-H bonds in products.  Ideally, this goal requires a multifunctional catalyst that can separate the many functions of light harvesting, charge separation, and CO2 activation to facilitate proton coupled electron transfer to produce high-energy products selectively.  A variety of TiO2-based nanocomposite materials have been synthesized and characterized to reveal salient structural and chemical features (e.g., reduced metal centers, oxygen vacancies, preferred crystal facet orientation, undercoordinated surface sites, various interfacial geometries) critical to tackling the many challenges of artificial photosynthesis.

Key features of TiO<sub>2</sub>-based nano-architectures for CO<sub>2</sub> conversion

245th National Meeting (2013)

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Key features of TiO2-based nano-architectures for CO2 conversion

Key features of TiO₂-based nano-architectures for CO₂ conversion