Opus Lap

Project number: UMO- 2021/43/I/ST5/01536

Principal investigator: Katarzyna Matras-Postołek Prof., Ph.D., DSc. Eng. 

Obtained funds: 1 922 050 PLN

Funding source: National Science Centre

Project duration:

Start day: 04-2023

End day: 04-2026

Partners: 

prof. Andrzej Bernasik, AGH University of Krakow, Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology

prof. Jakub Rysz, Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science

prof. Michael Bredol, Münster University of Applied Sciences in Germany

Short description of the project:

The global problem of the modern energy sector is caused both by the decline of the main energy sources, such as gas, oil, coal and uranium, and by environmental degradation resulting, inter alia, from the enormous emissions of greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide (CO₂). This problem makes it necessary to look for solutions to reduce CO₂ concentration, which by supporting the natural process of photosynthesis will help to reduce its amount in the atmosphere. One of them is to develop a catalyst that will reduce carbon dioxide to simple chemical compounds using solar radiation. Solar-driven CO₂ reduction would provide a perfect way for the conversion of technically abundant carbon dioxide (CO2) into practical chemical substances or fuels. Solar-driven CO₂ reduction to CO or other valuable chemicals in solution is a extremely slow process due to unfavourable energetics of the intermediate CO₂ •- anion radical. ZnTe in principle could change this situation, because its conduction band edge is matching the energetic level of the CO₂/CO₂•- redox couple. The photochemical stability of ZnTe however will need dramatic improvements in order to make ZnTe a useful photocatalyst.

This project aims at design, synthesis and evaluation of ZnTe in the form of “magic-sized nanoclusters”: nanoparticles with certain (small) numbers of ZnTe units are known to be much more stable than other nanoparticles and therefore may open a way to prepare ZnTe photocatalysts and electrocatalysts with sufficient stability. The project will not only deal with preparation and characterization of such nanoparticles, but also look for methods to adsorb and stabilize them on conductive and non-conductive supports. Such nanocomposites then will be evaluated in terms of electrically biased and nonbiased photocatalytic chemical reduction of CO₂ (and potentially also other technically interesting entities like N₂ or metal ions).