Energy and environmental considerations provide a significant impetus for unlocking the potential of solar energy in the production of useful chemical fuels from abundantly available feedstocks.  One promising solution is the renewable production of hydrogen from the solar-driven photocatalysis of water using metal-oxide particles.  Conventional solid-state synthetic approaches yield very limited control over their particle morphologies, sizes, and compositions, but which are necessary to more deeply probe their photocatalytic properties.  As an alternative approach, molten salts, i.e., ACl and A2SO4 (A = Na, K, Cu), have been investigated for the synthesis of a diverse range layered and non-layered metal oxides.  These flux-mediated reactions yield highly-faceted particles that can be varied from nanometer to micrometer in size, as well as from platelet-shaped to rod-shaped in morphology.  These syntheses result in metal-oxide particles with photocatalytic activities for hydrogen production that can be varied an order of magnitude or more, and thus revealing key insights into their photocatalytic properties.  Further, Cu(I)-exchange for the alkali-metal ions within the interlayer spaces can be used to prepare mixed-metal oxides that create an optimal band-energy profile for the absorption of visible-light to drive these photocatalytic reactions.

Flux synthesis of metal oxides and understanding their photocatalytic activities

246th National Meeting (2013)

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