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Artificial photosynthesis for solar fuels: A clean pathway from sunlight to chemical fuels

 Santosh Kumara

 Artificial photosynthesis as a route to solar fuels from CO2 and water represents a promising strategy to deliver H2, syngas and hydrocarbons as sustainable feed stocks to support global energy needs and security, and (albeit to a limited extent) mitigate anthropogenic climate change. We have been working on design and synthesis of nanostructured-based materials like TiO2, Cu2O, g-C3N4, layer double hydroxides and halide perovskites for photo catalytic and photo electrocatalytic water splitting and CO2 reduction. In particular, heterojunction-based materials involving visible light absorbing semiconductor and other semiconductors and/or metal nanoparticles greatly enhances interfacial contact between both components relative to their bulk counterparts. The resulting synergic interaction confers a significant improvement in photo induced charge carrier separation, and concomitant aqueous or gas phase CO2 photo catalytic reduction, in the absence of a sacrificial whole acceptor.