The catalysts open the way to green energy

Chengyang feng

A new material turns out to be one of the most effective photocatalysis for. For example, the production of hydrogen peroxide from solar energy.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentrates so much chemical energy in a reduced space that it is powerful enough to supply rockets.. Therefore, But this same capacity to concentrate energy also makes hydrogen peroxide useful for more terrestrial energy applications. However, such as the supply of fuel cells. In addition, It is also promising as a source of green. Meanwhile, durable energy: when hydrogen peroxide releases the energy it stores, the main by-product is simply water.

Huabin Zhang. Moreover, his Kaust team, in collaboration with Chinese and American colleagues, have developed a material that considerably increases the production of hydrogen peroxide. Consequently, “” We have proposed a practical strategy to regulate the chemical state of a catalyst at the atomic level ». However, catalysts open way green energy Indique Chengyang Feng, Membre the L’PREAM KILL.

The conventional approach to the production of hydrogen peroxide on a industrial scale requires several organic solvents toxic to the. Therefore, environment. An approach much more respectful of the environment is to use a photocatalytic system powered by sunlight.

These systems generate hydrogen peroxide directly from the water. oxygen present in the air, using a semiconductor photocatalyst that captures solar energy. When exposed to sunlight, photocatalyst absorbs photons and generates load carriers, namely electrons and holes. Photogenized electrons participate in the oxygen reduction reaction (Orr) to the surface of the catalyst. reducing oxygen molecules to hydrogen peroxide.

The effectiveness of this process is considerably improved by optimizing the surface properties of the photocatalyst. its interaction with light.

One of the main challenges to improve photocatalytic efficiency is that several oxygen reduction reactions can occur. The process that leads to the formation of hydrogen peroxide implies two electrons. catalysts open way green energy But there are other less useful reactions. The process with four electrons generates water, while the reactions to an electron form form unstable superoxides. Among these possibilities. water formation is thermodynamically the most favorable, so that catalysts must be designed to promote the process with two desired electrons towards hydrogen peroxide.

The photocatalyst developed by researchers was made from Tungsten Trioxide (WO₃), which they modified by adding isolated copper atoms. Although tungsten trioxide is already a well -known photocatalyst. the team added copper atoms to capture and activate oxygen molecules and orient reactions to the two electrons.

« Compared to previously demonstrated catalysts. our catalyst has well -defined single atom catalytic sites where electronic states that cause chemical reactions are adjustable “Explains Feng. “” This can be easily done by adjusting the interaction between metal sites and support. »

The team studied several different compositions. but their most efficient photocatalyst produced 102 micromoles catalysts open way green energy of hydrogen peroxide per hour when it was irradiated by visible light. This result is much higher than that of all the photocatalysis previously reported and 17.3 times higher than that of a catalyst made from tungsten trioxide without copper.

« The next step in this research is to optimize the catalytic system more in real conditions. to explore its scalability and its long -term operational stability, and to study its integration into devices or practical processes », Conclude feng.

Yang, F., Feng, C., Zuo, S., Wang, Q., Wei, F., Hu, M., Ren, Y., Liu, D., Li, W.-L., Wang, S., Alqahtani, H.S., Ng, Y.H. & Zhang, H. Photocatalytic H2O2 production with >30% quantum efficiency via monovalent copper dynamics. Journal of the American Chemical Society 147, 17112–17120 (2025). | article.

Source : Folder