Classical chemical transformations are activated with heat, which is unspecific, energy-intensive, and can compromise yields for endothermal reactions. However, recent developments of photo-redox catalysis combined with state-of-the-art efficient LED-light sources and green electricity suggest that activation through photochemistry can be a sustainable alternative to thermally activated chemical transformations. Among chemical transformations, the coupling of carbon atoms is a great challenge, for example the combination of two methanol molecules to one molecule of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG). A photochemical pathway is supposedly following a radical mechanism that generates H2 as a valuable side-product.
This PhD project will aim at creating novel heterogeneous photo(electro)catalytic systems. This project will consider MEG-formation at first, but it will be open to mechanistic discoveries suggesting other valuable transformations. In a first step, inorganic semiconductor materials with an appropriate band-gap for the photo-oxidation reactions of interest will be synthesized for either photocatalytic reactors (powders) or photoelectrochemical cells (stack of films). Among different semiconductor candidates, halide perovskites will be considered due to their exceptional optoelectronic properties. The semiconductors will be combined with electrocatalysts to boost performance and selectivity and surrounded by charge transport layers for enhanced charge separation and yield.
This PhD project will be carried out in specialized labs in Applied Energy Materials at Imperial College South Kensington campus. This project is sponsored by BASF, a company that is interested in the industrial deployment of sustainable innovations and is a strategic partner of Imperial College. It will be embedded into an interdisciplinary team of professors and students within the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Synthesis & Reaction Technology, pushing the boundaries of photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical chemistry toward industrial deployment. It will be co-advised by industrial experts from BASF and benefit from the competence of seven Imperial faculty members convening in bi-weekly co-creation meetings.
To submit an application, contact s.eslava@imperial.ac.uk with CV, transcript, and motivation letter
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