DIFFER researcher Kiran George will defend his PhD thesis titled "Modeling water oxidation at photoanodes: A multiscale approach" on 16 October 2020 from 13:30 - 14:30 CEST. The defense will take place at TU/e for a limited number of people, and can be followed online.
Modeling water oxidation at photoanodes: A multiscale approach
Water splitting uses sunlight to produce hydrogen from water: a promising path for converting solar energy into clean chemical fuel. The device used for performing this conversion is called a photoelectrochemical cell. Even though theoretical solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiencies of photoelectrochemical cells are promising, the practical efficiencies are quite low for commercialization. One of the reasons for the overall low performance of the cell is attributed to the low efficiency of the water oxidation process occurring at the photoanode of the cell. Therefore, understanding the factors influencing the water oxidation process is necessary for improving the efficiency of solar water splitting.
In this thesis Kiran George develops a multiscale modeling approach of the underlying physics of water splitting. By modeling the elementary steps in water oxidation coupled to the processes at the photoanode, he can simulate electrochemical data similar to experiments.
By comparing simulated data with experiments, mechanistic information about water oxidation occurring at photoanodes is gathered. This allows for answering some of the long-standing questions related to water oxidation at photoanodes, such as the impact of different types of surface states on water oxidation. Further development of the multiscale modeling in combination with experiments will deliver more insights about the water oxidation process which will aid in devising strategies to develop high-performance photoelectrochemical cells for efficient solar fuel generation.
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