The production of clean storable energy to replace fossil fuels remains one of the key challenges for our societies. The Sprick group (https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/persons/seb-sprick, Twitter: @SebSprick) aims to solve this challenge by designing conjugated polymers that use the Sun’s energy to produce hydrogen from water through a process call solar water splitting (Nat. Energy 2019, 4, 746–760).
Conjugated polymers have emerged as a new exciting photocatalyst class for water splitting as their properties can be fine-tuned through synthetic approaches using a wide range of building blocks compared to inorganic photocatalysts. This project will be focused on the development of new materials through new synthetic strategies and post-synthetic modification based on recently reported solution-processible polymer photocatalysts (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 19382–19395).
A particular focus will be on using wastewater streams rather than pure water using photocatalytically active polymer films. This will not only increase the yield of the hydrogen production through coupling of hydrogen production to the oxidation of organic pollutants but also enables the removal of persistent micropollutants which typically cannot be removed in sewage treatment plants, thus escape intact into surface and groundwater bodies.
The student will gain experience in modern synthetic methods, characterisation techniques, as well as in photochemical measurements and determining water characteristics, including quantification of micropollutants can be measured by means of analytical instruments such as GC-MS, HPLC, and TOC analysers, UV-vis spectrophotometry, BOD, COD, pH, conductivity and turbidity measurements. Additional opportunities are available through the University’s PG Researcher Professional Development Programme to develop transferable skills. Research findings will be published in high impact journals with the opportunity to present at an international conference.
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