Synthesis of new electrode materials for water splitting

Co-PIs: Ernesto C. Pereira – UFSCar – Chemistry Department – ernesto@ufscar.br

The main objective of this project is the synthesis of functional materials of oxides, selenides and sulfides with composition control, microstructure, film thickness and morphology, which will be produced by low cost and high efficiency photoelectrochemical reactions. Besides, fundamental investigation of reaction using both experimental and computational methods will be developed. As the main focus synthesis aims at the control of these properties, it is expected to correlate the appropriate characteristics of each of the materials with their photoactivity. Thus, the objective is to significantly improve the photoelectrocatalytic properties of these materials, either by increasing the photocurrent, which in the literature has a range between 0.01 to 3.0 mA cm^-2, or by increasing the stability of the material.