CleanH2 – Fundamental Research in Solar-driven Hydrogen Generation using Earth-abundant Catalysts and Durable Hydrid Perovskites as Light Absorbers. (R-11435)

CLEANH2 will address the critical issues to make hydrogen production via solar-driven water splitting efficient and affordable. CLEANH2 is a cooperative and interdisciplinary basic research project with the common objective to contribute greatly to a fundamental understanding of how to improve the efficiency and stability of solar-driven water splitting processes and to use this knowledge to create major breakthroughs notably in affordable ways to convert sunlight into chemical energy using an electrochemical-photovoltaic (EC-PV) approach. CLEANH2 involves the most advanced scientific techniques and a powerful synergy among 1) chemists to design and synthesise novel stable solar harvesters and earth-abundant catalysts, 2) physicists to tackle theoretical problems in describing, understanding and tailoring electron and transport phenomena, 3) engineers to measure and benchmark parameters of interest of the different critical sub-components, and to evaluate their jointly behaviour and, 4) economists for economic analysis and environmental impact studies.

Keywords:Materials science, Nanotechnology

Disciplines:Photonics, optoelectronics and optical communications, Synthesis of materials, Physical organic chemistry, Electrochemistry, Ecosystem services, Molecular and organic electronics, Nanoelectronics, Nanofabrication, growth and self assembly, Nanomaterials, Nanoscale characterisation, Renewable power and energy systems engineering, Materials synthesis