Taster lecture: Solar-driven Photocatalytic Water splitting for Sustainable Future – An overview
Taster lecture: Solar-driven Photocatalytic Water splitting for Sustainable Future – An overview
03 Jun 2020, 10:00 – 11:00
Abstract:
The global energy crisis and environmental pollution due to rapid industrialization and population growth have become two of the greatest challenges of human society. The utilization of solar energy and earth abundant water to produce hydrogen (H2) fuel by photocatalysis has great potential to solve these issues. Several research groups around the world have been working on solar-driven water splitting, however, the greatest obstacle to the realization of commercial solar water splitting is the requirement to produce H2 at a competitive cost compared to the current industrial hydrogen generation process involving the reforming of fossil fuels. In the light of robust, low-cost and large-scale H2 production, particulate photocatalyst suspension systems have a wider range of potential applications, although a method for separating the simultaneously produced H2 and O2 remains to be developed. In addition, solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency (STH) values achieved so far using particulate photocatalyst suspension are typically on the order of 0.1%. To enhance the STH, various strategies have been under investigation to achieve approximately 5-10% as it has been estimated that it would provide one third of the energy needs for human activities in 2050.
Presented by:
Dr Madasamy Thangamuthu, Senior Postdoc
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[[{"fid":"4895","view_mode":"non_responsive","fields":{"format":"non_responsive","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Dr Madasamy Thangamuthu","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"left","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"non_responsive","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Dr Madasamy Thangamuthu","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][title]":"","field_caption_heading[und][0][url]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_float_left_right[und]":"left","field_file_image_decorative[und]":"0"}},"attributes":{"height":"140","width":"140","class":"media-element file-non-responsive"}}]]Madasamy Thangamuthu attained his Ph.D graduation in Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India, in 2014 on the topic of “Electrochemical biosensors for hypoxia biomarkers” in collaboration with Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), New Delhi, India. Then, he moved to Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland for his postdoc studies by a Swiss government excellence scholarship program. He spent 5 years in EPFL mainly worked in the field of plasmonic heterogenous photocatalysis. He secured a project from a Swiss funding agency to develop a method for plasmon-assisted ammonia synthesis. At present, he is a senior postdoc in Prof. Junwang Tang's Group at the Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London (UCL). His current research focuses on solar-driven water splitting using Z-scheme particulate suspension system. To his credit, he has more than 20 peer-reviewed publications, 2 patents, and authored 3 book chapters.
Further information
Ticketing
Open
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes
