(391d) New Nanostructured Photocatalysts for Photocatalytic Solar Fuel Production

The direct conversion of solar energy into chemical energy leading to the production of renewable and non-polluting fuels remains a great and fascinating challenge for this century. Among various interesting reactions the splitting of water or hydrogen sulfide into hydrogen by solar light is potentially one of the most promising ways for the photochemical conversion and storage of solar energy. Especially, the semiconductor mediated conversion of sun light energy into electric or chemical energy has attracted considerable research efforts in recent years. Efficient semiconductor materials for this purpose must possess certain characteristics such as suitable band gap energies, stability toward photo corrosion, and suitable physical characteristics. In this talk, we report the synthesis of novel nanostructured semiconductor photocatalysts. The as-synthesized materials were found to be an excellent photocatalysts for the production of hydrogen under visible light irradiation.