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A combinatorial approach to the synthesis of inorganic heterogeneous photocatalysis for hydrogen production Using combinatorial methods, potential heterogeneous photocatalysts were synthesized. Al2O3, Fe2O3, TiO, and SiO2 beads were used as supports for TiO2 prepared by sol-gel methods. Then via split-pool synthesis, they were doped using 10 mM aqueous solutions of PdCl2, RuCl3, CoCl2, CuCl3, FeCl2, CrCl3, NiCl2, and SnCl2 in HCl (2M). 230 chemically different beads were synthesized, and 96 of these were screened for hydrogen production, via water splitting reaction and methanol reformation. The continued use of non-renewable natural resources such as petroleum-based fuels is environmentally taxing. There are many areas of research, which focus on making hydrogen an affordable source of energy, including research for storage vessels, fuel cells, and catalytic materials to carry out reactions for the production of hydrogen. Hydrogen is a desirable energy source, because it can be used directly as a fuel for transportation and electricity, without the production of pollutants. Water splitting (Scheme. 1), is the reduction/oxidation reaction, through which only water is needed to produce H2 and O2. However, with out the use of a catalyst, and energy supplied by either heat or photons, the activation energies of the multiple step reaction are too high to overcome. Scheme 1. II. The Half Reactions (Redox) Return to the RISE 2000 project list |
