Linking Defect Chemistry to Photo- and Electrocatalytic Performance

Ludmilla Steier^a

^aDepartment of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2024 Conference (MATSUS24)

#ProMatSol - Exploring Material Properties for Advanced Solar Energy Applications

Barcelona, Spain, 2024 March 4th - 8th

Organizers: Marina Freitag and Elizabeth Gibson

Invited Speaker, Ludmilla Steier, presentation 440
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2024.440
Publication date: 18th December 2023

Doping or alloying strategies are heavily employed in the design of new catalysts for photoelectrochemical, photochemical and electrochemical conversion reactions with enhanced solar energy harvesting efficiencies and/or desired surface chemistry. In the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ for example, efforts are focused on the development of electrocatalysts with high activity and selectivity towards C₂₊ products ideally breaking the scaling relations currently observed for metal surfaces.[1] In photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic devices research has focused on developing catalysts with light harvesting in the visible, strong surface electric fields and long charge carrier lifetimes.[2,3] In both, electro- and photocatalytic systems, perovskite oxides have been employed heavily, offering a more versatile defect chemistry platform.

Here, I will showcase some of our studies on oxide perovskite materials employed in photo- and electrocatalysis discussing links between defect chemistry and catalytic performance. One example will be the visible light absorber (La,Sr)(Rh,Ti)O3 employed in the Z-scheme photocatalyst sheet device from Profs. Wang and Domen which led to a record 1% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency.[4,5] Taking inspiration from this material, we have been investigating the performance of other dopants and compositions in photo- and electrocatalytic conversion of CO₂ leading us to look very closely into the material surface compositions and the ways of reporting of catalytic activity.

References:

[1] Stephens, I. E. L. et al. 2022 roadmap on low temperature electrochemical CO2 reduction. Journal of Physics: Energy 4 (2022).

[2] Corby, S., Rao, R. R., Steier, L. & Durrant, J. R. The kinetics of metal oxide photoanodes from charge generation to catalysis. Nature Reviews Materials 6, 1136-1155 (2021).

[3] Luo, H. et al. Progress and Perspectives in Photo- and Electrochemical-Oxidation of Biomass for Sustainable Chemicals and Hydrogen Production. Advanced Energy Materials 11, 2101180 (2021).

[4] Wang, Q. et al. Scalable water splitting on particulate photocatalyst sheets with a solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency exceeding 1%. Nature Materials 15, 611+ (2016).

[5] Moss, B., Wang, Q., Butler, K.T. et al. Linking in situ charge accumulation to electronic structure in doped SrTiO3 reveals design principles for hydrogen-evolving photocatalysts. Nat. Mater. 20, 511–517 (2021).

nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.

MATSUS

Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.

Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics

The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.

International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics

The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.