Direct conversion of sunlight to fuels using photocatalytic processes has long been explored as one of the most promising sustainable approaches. The two widely investigated processes are hydrogen generation via water splitting and carbon dioxide to hydrocarbon fuel conversion. Neither of these technologies has yet gone beyond laboratory scale research due primarily to problems such as low process efficiency and poor stability of photocatalysts. While the photocatalysts in the form of colloidal quantum dots possess tremendous potential in boosting the solar to fuel conversion efficiency due to their unique properties provided by the zero dimensional geometry, most materials investigated so far have not shown sufficient robustness in sustaining the photo-assisted redox reactions for a long time. Nevertheless, some new materials and strategies emerging currently raise hopes. For example, we recently used quantum dots of boron nitride, a stable wide band gap material, in association with titania nanotubes, another stable material, for photoelectrochemical hydrogen generation. Our work demonstrated that the nano-heterostructure formed by the two materials could absorb and convert light more efficiently to charges for redox reactions in a significantly broader energy range than the individual materials. The advances in using this nano-heterostructure approach for the performance enhancement of photocatalysts used for solar fuel generation will be discussed in this presentation.

Colloidal quantum dots-based nano-heterostructures for solar fuel generation

2019 Fall National Meeting

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