Publication

Efficient and selective carbon dioxide reduction on low cost protected Cu2O photocathodes using a molecular catalyst

Publications associées (25)

Tailoring nanocatalysts and reaction interfaces for water- and CO2-electrolysis

Renewable energy sources offer a promising solution for mitigating sustainability and CO2 emissions-related issues due to their vast energy generation capacity. They enable hydrogen production via water electrolysis, as well as carbon capture and utilizati ...

EPFL2024

Dissecting the photoacidity of spiropyran/merocyanine molecular switches in water

Cesare Berton

Photochemistry is a discipline that studies the interaction between light and matter with the scope to induce chemical transformations. The first conjugation between light and chemistry can be dated back to the lifespan of Giacomo Luigi Ciamician, who is c ...

EPFL2023

CO2 Capture and Release in Amine Solutions: To What Extent Can Molecular Simulations Help Understand the Trends?

Wanda Andreoni, Fabio Pietrucci, Changru Ma

Absorption in amine solutions is a well-established advanced technology for CO2 capture. However, the fundamental aspects of the chemical reactions occurring in solution still appear to be unclear. Our previous investigation of aqueous monoethanolamine (ME ...

2023

Copper Nanocrystal Morphology Determines the Viability of Molecular Surface Functionalization in Tuning Electrocatalytic Behavior in CO2 Reduction

Raffaella Buonsanti, Pranit Srinivas Iyengar, James Richard Pankhurst, Valery Okatenko

Molecular surface functionalization of metallic catalysts is emerging as an ever-developing approach to tuning their catalytic performance. Here, we report the synthesis of hybrid catalysts comprising copper nanocrystals (CuNCs) and an imidazolium ligand f ...

2021

Novel Interfacial Characterization and Surface Engineering in Semiconductor Electrodes for Optimized Solar Fuel Production

Yongpeng Liu

Harvesting sunlight, the ultimate renewable power source, in a cost-effective way has been long recognized as a necessary route to meet the global energy challenges. Solar energy can be transformed into electricity by means of photovoltaic devices to suppl ...

EPFL2021

Decreasing the Stability of Borohydride with Ionic Liquids for Hydrogen Storage and Carbon Dioxide Conversion

Loris Giovanni Lombardo

The world needs to move from a fossil fuel to a renewable energy based society. With the increasing electricity production from wind and PV, short and long term energy storage are becoming one of challenge of the 21st century. While batteries are the prefe ...

EPFL2021

Strategies for Semiconductor/Electrocatalyst Coupling toward Solar-Driven Water Splitting

Xile Hu, Lichen Bai, Lei Liu

Hydrogen (H-2) has a significant potential to enable the global energy transition from the current fossil-dominant system to a clean, sustainable, and low-carbon energy system. While presently global H-2 production is predominated by fossil-fuel feedstocks ...

2020

Trace Iridium Engineering on Nickel Hydroxide Nanosheets as High-active Catalyst for Overall Water Splitting

Pengzuo Chen, Yun Tong

Designing cost-effective electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting to generate the hydrogen energy as a future energy source is pivotal. An excellent catalyst should show high catalytic activity for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxy ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag2020

Linking Morphology and Multi-Physical Transport in Structured Electrodes

Silvan Suter

Motivated to advance the renewable energy production and diversify the technologies for storable energy carriers, my work is concentrated on the characterization and the optimization of electrode morphologies applicable in photoelectrochemical water-splitt ...

EPFL2019

Kinetic Competition between Water-Splitting and Photocorrosion Reactions in Photoelectrochemical Devices

Sophia Haussener, Fredy Intelligent Nandjou Dongmeza

Semiconductor photocorrosion is a major challenge for the stability of photoelectrochemical water-splitting devices. Usually, photocorrosion is studied on the basis of thermodynamic aspects, by comparing the redox potentials of water to the self-decomposit ...

2019

Hematite Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting: A Detailed Spectroelectrochemical Analysis on the pH-Dependent Performance

Florian Le Formal, Nestor Guijarro Carratala, Yongpeng Liu, Florent Alexandre Boudoire

The effect of the electrolyte pH on the performance of metal oxide photoanodes for solar water oxidation has not been fully resolved, and contrasting views have been presented in recent reports. Herein, a comprehensive set of spectroelectrochemical techniq ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2019

Development of heterogeneous catalytic systems for the transformation of carbon dioxide to methanol under mild conditions

Aswin Gopakumar

Rising level of carbon dioxide (CO2) is a significant contributor to global warming and poses a major concern in modern society and environment. Anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production and deforestation are the primary ca ...

EPFL2018

Solar-driven reduction of CO₂ : from homogeneous to heterogeneous catalytic systems

Marcel Roland Schreier

Rapidly increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and their damaging impact on the global climate system raise doubts about the sustainability of the fossil resource based energy system. Meanwhile, raising living standards and increasing global popul ...

EPFL2017

Covalent Immobilization of a Molecular Catalyst on Cu2O Photocathodes for CO2 Reduction

Michael Graetzel, Marcel Roland Schreier, Thomas Moehl, Peng Gao, Matthew Thomas Mayer, Jingshan Luo

Sunlight-driven CO2 reduction is a promising way to close the anthropogenic carbon cycle. Integrating light harvester and electrocatalyst functions into a single photo electrode, which converts solar energy and CO2 directly into reduced carbon species, is ...

American Chemical Society2016

Molecular Origin and Electrochemical Influence of Capacitive Surface States on Iron Oxide Photoanodes

Michael Graetzel, Yelin Hu, Artur Braun, Florent Alexandre Boudoire

The origin, the nature, and the electronic structure of surface defects causing surface states on metal oxides and their role in solar water splitting have been under scrutiny for several decades. In the present study, the surface of hematite films is trea ...

American Chemical Society2016

Utilizing modeling, experiments, and statistics for the analysis of water-splitting photoelectrodes

Yannick Kenneth Gaudy, Sophia Haussener

A multi-physics model of a planar photoelectrochemical water-splitting device was developed, validated and used to identify and quantify the most significant materials-related bottlenecks in photoelectrochemical device performance. The model accounted for ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2016

Morphology, structural and optical properties of iron oxide thin film photoanodes in photoelectrochemical cell: Effect of electrochemical oxidation

Yelin Hu, Artur Braun

Hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) is a promising semiconductor as photoanode in solar hydrogen production from photoelectrolysis of water due to its appropriate band gap, low cost and high electrochemical stability in aqueous caustic electrolytes. Operation of such p ...

Elsevier Science Bv2016

Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 Catalyzed by Metal Oxides

Yeonji Oh

A rapidly growing population and industrialization have caused the exploitation of natural resources in keeping with fossil fuels shortage. Due to the combustion of fossil fuels, the concentration of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere, which is a potent greenho ...

EPFL2015

Novel Ionic Liquids For Electrochemical Applications

Pui Shan Genevieve Lau

This thesis is organized into three main sections, and is concerned with the design and synthesis of novel ionic liquids (ILs), and their associated electrochemical applications. In the first section, a general introduction to the field of ionic liquids is ...

EPFL2015

Molecular Engineering of Functional Materials for Energy and Opto-Electronic Applications

Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, Peng Gao, Sadig Aghazada

This review presents an overview of the dedicated research directions of the Group for Molecular Engineering of Functional Materials (GMF). This includes molecular engineering aspects of sensitizers constructed from ruthenium complexes, organic molecules, ...

Swiss Chemical Soc2015