Material Genome Engineering in Photocatalysis

Song Sun^1,2*, Xiaodi Zhu², Jun Bao², Faqiang Xu², Chen Gao^2,3

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, China;

² National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230029, China;

³ School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China

ABSTRACT: Photocatalysis technology can convert solar energy into high-quality chemical energy, which has an important application prospect in solving energy and environmental problems. Despite several decades of intensive studies, only a few commercial photocatalysts have been discovered by means of the conventional one-at-a-time synthesis and characterization. Fortunately by the high-throughput material experimental strategy, a large number of material samples with different composition and structure/microstructure are synthesized simultaneously to form the “materials library”. Then, the composition-synthesis-structure/microstructure-performance correlation can be identified through rapid characterization of the materials library. This idea is promised to greatly accelerate the materials research and promote the discovery of new materials, especially for photocatalysts. In recent years, we have developed a combinatorial drop-on-demand inkjet delivery system, a parallel sol-gel synthesizer with 400 samples at one time and a hydrothermal/solvent-thermal synthesizer with 100 samples at one time and applied them to the studies of photocatalysts by addressing the problems of low flux and uneven powder synthesized in the existing high-throughput equipment for wet chemical synthesis. Moreover, the high-throughput characterization method on structures and performances of photocatalysts, including infrared microscopy, color development, fluorescence indication, etc., was also developed. Based on these, the platform of parallel synthesis and high-throughput characterization was preliminarily established (Fig.1). Several photocatalytic systems, such as TiO₂, Cu_1-xCdSS_1-yO, YAlO₃, etc. were systematically studied. For example one representative oxysulfide photocatalyst for overall water splitting was obtained with a quantum efficiency of 4.9%@420 nm. The relationship between surface adsorption and degradation efficiency was revealed, and the mechanism and reaction kinetics of photocatalytic degradation of gaseous organic compounds were also explored.

Fig 1.  Scheme of parallel synthesis and high-throughput characterization of photocatalysts

Keywords: photocatalysis; degradation of pollutants; water splitting; parallel synthesis; high throughput characterization

* Corresponding author: suns@ustc.edu.cn.