2D Trifunctional Catalysts for Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage

Objective

The World is currently in a state of an energy and climate crisis. The World’s fossil fuel reserves are predicted to be depleted in the next century. Due to this and the increase in global warming, EU policies have called for the decrease use of carbon-based fossil fuels and the development of alternative energy resources. Hence, it is of paramount importance to conduct research into alternative energy conversion and storage technologies now. Electrolytic water splitting is an attractive process for producing clean hydrogen which can be used in a fuel cell to make electricity. The electrochemical energy needed for water splitting and fuel cells could be generated by materials that can hold efficient charge in the electrochemical double layer or in Faradaic regions e.g. supercapacitor materials. Unfortunately, these technologies (electrolysers, fuel cells and supercapacitors) are still under major research as the ‘state-of-the-art’ catalysts currently used are uneconomical. The development and rational design of new, cheap and active electrodes as tri-functional catalysts for these three alternative energy technologies is one avenue to explore to reach the goals set out by the various EU polices. 2D Transition Metal Oxide (TMO) materials may be the answer to this problem, as when compared to their bulk counterparts, 2D materials are more conductive and exhibit interesting properties. Currently, in the literature there are no trifunctional catalysts for the aforementioned alternative energy applications based on 2D TMO materials (source: Scopus, terms: 2D TMO materials/water splitting/ fuel cells/ supercapacitors). Hence this fellowship will investigate just that. The proposed multifunctional energy storage and conversion catalysts, in this fellowship, will be a first in the energy/materials field and will contribute a plethora of knowledge to current literature. I, the applicant, along with the Nicolosi group have the combined tools and knowledge to achieve this.